In a labor market, if the equilibrium wage is analogous to the point where supply meets demand for a product, then the optimal number of workers hired is to labor as the optimal quantity of goods produced is to what?

In a labor market, the equilibrium wage is the point where the number of workers that employers want to hire matches the number of workers who want to work at that wage. This is similar to how the optimal quantity of goods produced is the point where the supply of goods meets the demand for those goods. Just as producers aim to make enough products to satisfy buyers without creating too much excess, employers want to hire just the right number of workers to meet their business needs. For example, if a bakery finds that it sells 100 loaves of bread daily, it would hire just enough bakers to produce that amount without wasting resources. Therefore, the optimal number of workers hired relates directly to how well the supply of labor meets the demand for labor, just as the optimal quantity of goods produced relates to supply meeting demand in the product market.