Stardate 20010905.0730 (On Screen): It's reported that worker productivity rose 2.1% in the last quarter. (I'm not sure if that's the real amount or an "annualized" amount; probably the latter.) I have to wonder whether it is actually a statistical anomaly. When productivity rises during times of prosperity when employment is also rising, then clearly that's a meaningful measure. But this is not such a time.
Manufacturing output is falling, and there have been a lot of layoffs. When a company decides to lay people off, inevitably it will lay off the ones who contribute least to its economic well-being and keep the people who contribute most. In other words, it lays off the least productive workers and keeps the most productive ones. That would mean that the average productivity of the remaining workers would be higher than before the layoff, but not because the productivity of any individual worker necessarily increased -- indeed, it probably decreases somewhat because of disruption of the business. So I'm not sure that this statistic really tells us anything. (discuss)
