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The rate of production of a labourer is therefore a function of his level of skill, the number of hours per week he works, and the level of technology he is using to do his work.
By pushing up the level of technology, the capitalist can reduce the skill level required from his labourer and the hours per week he needs to work, while at the same time pushing up his rate of production.
This applies to all labourers, irrespective of their level of skill, knowledge and experience. It applies to the lower skilled first. But as technology advances, it begins to apply to labourers of greater skills and knowledge. Two centuries ago when machinery was introduced, low skilled labourers were reduced in stature. Now computers are replacing clerks, secretaries, accountants. Soon neural network software will render obsolete the skill of the typist and the skilled prototyper or tool maker. Expert systems will enable a low-skilled paramedic to replace the doctor and consultant in diagnosing and treating trauma victims. Absurd? Who in the 1960s would have lent any credence to the notion that, by the 1990s, computer programmers like me would have joined the ranks of the long-term unemployed?
As the level of skill required by a production task decreases, the size of the pool of available labour with that lower level of skill increases. This larger pool will include younger, and hence more naive labourers who are far less street-wise and hence cheaper and easier to control. Labour therefore becomes more and more of a buyer's market.
Technology is always cheaper than labour. Machines do not need to be constantly fed and clothed. They do not have families to support. They can be switched off when not in use. The cost of advancing production technology is therefore always less than the cost it saves in reducing the skill level and working hours per week required to maintain a given rate of production. Nevertheless, human labour will always be required.