Question for DU econ or business majors re worker productivity.

[CTyankee]

When I hear the media talking head say "American workers are the most productive workers in the world," what do they mean by "productive"?

To me, it seems like it means that Americans are afraid of losing their jobs and therefore work harder for less because other employees have been laid off and they're forced to pick up the slack.

Is there more to the measure of "productivity" that I am not seeing here?

[rucky]

1. They don't know what they mean. According to GDP per hours worked, we're #3

Next to Norway & Luxemborg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_hour_worked

[CTyankee]

4. Luxembourg! I thought that banking stuff was the only thing people DID in Luxembourg!

Of course, they have the highest per capita standard of living also.

Is this a case where "productivity" is measured by how valuable in monetary terms their "work" is (because it is highly compensated work)?

[rucky]

11. Well, it's hard to measure social value

in terms of ergs. But I agree that would truly be more valuable than GDP contribution

[droidamus2]

2. I don't know the full answer, but..

One way productivity goes up is that if the capitalists can lay off a bunch of workers and then get the same amount of work out of those that remain 'productivity' goes up. It's been a long time since I took economics but I believe productivity is a measure of economic products or services produced per labor hour (or per worker). So in the end unless you see which part of the equation is causing a rise in 'productivity' you don't really know if it is good for the workers and the country in general or not.

[Cant trust em]

3. Your definition is partially true.

The technical definition of productivity can be found by GDP divided by total hours worked. So if we lay off half of our workforce and the other half has to pick up the slack, then we've just doubled our productivity.

That being said, we still have a higher educated workforce, better technology and more physical capital than most other countries that drives up overall productivity.

[CTyankee]

5. Really, higher than all the Scandinavian countries, Holland and Germany?

Plus, our educational standards are lacking when compared to them.

[Cant trust em]

7. I don't know what the actual rankings are, but that's how it's calculated.

European countries have more graduates as a percentage, but not on the whole.

[bettyellen]

6. i know I read technological gains have made the avg worker 30% more productive in I think it was ...

the last 30 years. Same period where wages have stagnated.

[Cant trust em]

8. I wonder if that's a causal effect, or just a correlation. nt

[former9thward]

9. Productivelty is a measure of machinery and technology.

If you have an office in 1985 with 50 workers and install personal computers you can eliminate most of the people who used be secretaries/office assistants, etc. You might have to hire a IT person but you end up with 30 people doing the work of 50. That is a 67% increase in productively.

[CTyankee]

10. So what can we do to keep the increase in productivity under your measure

AND have plenty of jobs available? If you retrain lots of workers in IT, do you end up with a glut of IT workers and not enough jobs?

[former9thward]

12. We already have a glut of IT workers.

I am not in IT but people who are tell me there are not the jobs that there used to be in the field. Schools have been producing too many of them, some of the work has been outsourced (IT help call centers in India) and the initial work of providing PCs to workplaces is pretty much over. I am not at all optimistic about retraining workers.

For what jobs? Technology is eliminating jobs everywhere. It has been years since I have interacted with a human at a gas station. I use my debit/credit card at the pump, fill it and off I go. There used to be all sorts of attendants at hundreds of thousands of gas stations in the country. Most have vanished now because of self serve and pay at the pump. I (and anyone here) could go on and on.

[CTyankee]

13. Not to go all Luddite on you, but isn't there just a limit to the effects

of technology's impact on the workers?

Of course, human services are big now for retraining purposes. But not everyone is cut out to be a phlebotimist or a dental assistant.

Surely, there is a field in human endeavor that needs more people in it?

[AdHocSolver]

14. Productivity compares the revenue gained from selling a product or service to the cost of production

You increase "productivity" by selling at a higher price or by reducing costs.

In other words, increased productivity essentially means higher profits margins. It does NOT mean greater efficiency in the engineering sense.

Techniques for increasing productivity include raising prices, reducing worker pay, getting the same revenue using fewer workers, reducing taxes, and so forth.

Increasing productivity is accomplished through automation, lowering wages, eliminating jobs, and outsourcing jobs to low wage countries.

Merger "mania" occurred because the merged companies can then eliminate duplication of functions such as personnel departments, IT functions, marketing, accounting, etc. In other words, they can lay off a lot of workers and thereby increase productivity because the same "output" is achieved with fewer workers.

Roughly speaking, the total income from sales divided by the total cost of operations calculated on a per unit basis is the measure of productivity.

Your understanding of what it means is pretty close.

[hfojvt]

15. some, perhaps much of it, is not about hard work

it is about technology. I certainly saw that at the Kraft plant. Much of the work their consisted in baby-sitting the machines. First, feeding them the cardboard and plastic that they needed to package the product, and then unjamming it when something got caught in the gears and re-starting it. But it was the machines that enabled the workers there to produce $100 worth of product in a minute. And line 8, the newest line, once they got the kinks worked out, was the most productive line of all.