U.S. workers have gotten way less productive. No one is sure why.

Discussion in 'Politics' started by kmgilroy89, Nov 3, 2022.

  1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/10/31/productivity-down-employers-worried-recession/

    "In the first half of 2022, productivity — the measure of how much output in goods and services an employee can produce in an hour — plunged by the sharpest rate on record going back to 1947, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

    It's easy to see why we have inflation if we increase the money supply (increases demand) and worker productivity decreases (decreases supply).
     
    Tsing Tao likes this.
  2. Cuddles

    Cuddles

    did you even read the article?
     
  3. Yes. I'm guessing you are asking that, because the drop was followed by a 2020 spike? However, they are expecting productivity to continue to decline through 2023.
     
  4. Tsing Tao

    Tsing Tao

    I'm sure nothing has to do with the fact that employees are "working from home".
     
  5. Cuddles

    Cuddles

    The article may read "productivity down" in its title but ironically makes the case for "exploitation is down" in the text.
     
  6. UsualName

    UsualName

    Maybe the opposite is true because the correlation is as workers have returned to the office productivity has decreased compared to when they were working from home.
     
    wrbtrader likes this.
  7. Cuddles

    Cuddles

    I read that elsewhere. Heck, that NYT piece makes the case for it "productivity boomed post covid-19 in part due to remote work" or something along those lines.
     
  8. gwb-trading

    gwb-trading

    wrbtrader and UsualName like this.
  9. UsualName

    UsualName

    Idk. But common sense says productivity boomed with wfh then plunged as return to office then we might want to check our prior beliefs as biased.

    To be fair, it could also just be workers are adjusting to the grind of the commute and less family time etc. Wait that seems like a bad thing.
     
  10. UsualName

    UsualName

    #10     Nov 4, 2022