With the dramatic increases in rice production following the use of high yielding varieties, interest has focused on factors affecting the supply of and demand for hired labour. Adopting the new rice technology results in increased use of total labour with much of this coming from unpaid family labour. The relative contribution of hired labour is declining. This thesis examines the available data in order to determine the factors that affect the supply of and demand for hired labour in Burmese rice production. Knowledge of these supply and demand structural relationships could be of use to policy makers in developing measures that will help to solve the problems stemming from labour shortages during crop establishment. In this study structural supply and demand equations for hired labour are developed and the simultaneous equation method is used for estimating purposes. The results from the study suggest that institutional arrangements and composite paddy prices should be of interest to policy makers in solving the labour shortages problem stemming from intensive cultivation. One policy option is for institutional programs to increase incentives for agricultural labour. Another is to narrow the gap between the official price and open market price of rice.