Labour-intensive

A qipao in the traditional style is made entirely by hand and requires labour-intensive manual tailoring techniques to enhance and exhibit every unique female form.

The French Dispatch has to be one of the most labour-intensive films in existence. It makes The Grand Budapest Hotel look as if it was improvised over a weekend and shot with a smartphone.

In Britain, nearly 2,500 steam locomotives were built, 999 to new designs. Although the latter were modern, they were still labour-intensive to man and maintain, during a period of full employment when working for poor pay in the dirty railway environment was unattractive.