Comments for Productivity, Profits, and Job Growth at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 6 out of 6 comments http://www.cepr.net Mon, 20 May 2013 07:47:14 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/productivity-profits-and-job-growth#comment-10757 I think they got it right. "The drop in productivity helped push UNIT labor costs up 2.2 percent". That is exactly what happens in the real world, and in a competitive environment, that won't fly. Another way to think about this, is that productively is linked to market share. As productively declines market share drops(global)especially as it relates to manufacturing. As market share declines, employment drops. To complicate the issue (noted by others), it does not make any different how the market pie decreases, if it shrinks (or is anticipated to shrink)that will impact employment. If one adds lower productively to the formula, employment will suffer further. - scott moore Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:01:20 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/productivity-profits-and-job-growth#comment-10608 It seems to be a current fad in the media to hang on the latest productivity figures, as if they were a direct measure of how the economy is doing. Maybe they just need to fill space. Over the long run productivity is dependent on capital investment - what businesses spend on new facilities with the latest labor-saving equipment, but in the short term, especially in a recession, it can be dependent on how many employees have been fired. Thus it can show either of two different things, responding on two different time scales. The important things are investment and employment and that is what should be reported. Productivity is the result of dividing two things which tend to move in the same direction. - skeptonomist Wed, 10 Aug 2011 04:38:17 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/productivity-profits-and-job-growth#comment-10602 Productivity increases in the last decade may have been badly mismeasured. Outsourcing/offshoring are likely the primary reasons for this. Check this out: http://innovationandgrowth.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/how-much-of-the-productivity-surge-of-2007-2009-was-real/ http://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2011/02 February/0211_napa.pdf - Doc at the Radar Station Wed, 10 Aug 2011 02:05:53 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/productivity-profits-and-job-growth#comment-10580 We just wrote up an overview, loaded with BLS definitions, corresponding equations and graphs, on The Economic Populist. In all honesty, beyond the significant revisions, of all of the government reports, this one generates some of the biggest confusion. First, I really question the downplay on outsourcing so far on it's effects by the BLS, from their own research, but I take it, output up, productivity way up, for workers = bad. Output up, productivity down, for workers = good. To me the missing piece is globalization. Where did all of the jobs go in 2009? Me thinks straight to China and India. - Robert Oak Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:51:14 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/productivity-profits-and-job-growth#comment-10579 I read the article from AP and couldn't really put all of together. I felt like I was stupid not to get what they were saying. Thanks for the concise clarification. I am proud of myself for at least being confused by the article/analysis by AP. You saved my day. - Nassim Sabba Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:16:04 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/productivity-profits-and-job-growth#comment-10578 "It now seems that firms were simply quicker to lay off workers than usual, which explains the unusually fast productivity growth early in the downturn." http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/02/06/economists-react-jobs-report-shows-slow-motion-train-wreck/tab/comments/ 2:36 pm February 6, 2009 Don the libertarian Democrat wrote: “More and more businesses are cutting jobs in anticipation of tougher times.” This is what’s happening. Employers are cutting jobs proactively in anticipation of a deep bottom. It’s a Proactivity Run. It is evident in Fisher’s Debt-Deflation. This also explains why productivity is rising. Since this run began in the middle of November, these figures mean that we are losing to Debt-Deflation. Since we’ve been trying to avoid this, what we’ve done hasn’t worked. Government needs to take bolder actions, including the Fed." I think Fisher's Views have been vindicated. - Donald Pretari Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:54:31 +0100