In 19th century Britain, there was no shortage of human labour. Poor peasants and vagrants came to the cities in large numbers in search of jobs.
The actual possibility of getting a job depended on their existing network of friendship and kin relations.
If someone had a relative or friend in a factory, he . could easily get a job. But not everyone had social connections.
The abundance of labor in the market affected the lives of the workers in Britain in following ways:
(i) The work available in most of the industries were seasonal. So workers had long period without work. Many returned to the countryside. But most of them looked for odd jobs.
(ii) Most of the workers had to wait for weeks or more to get a job. They had to spend nights under bridges or in night shelters.
(iii) Wages had increased somewhat in the early nineteenth century. When prices rose sharply during the prolonged Napoleonic war, the real value of what the workers earned fell significantly, since the same wages could now buy fewer things.