Value Added: U.S. Workers and Wages: The dark side of increased U.S. worker productivity
NewAmericanCont... - November 6, 2009 - 4:05pm
On November 5th, the U.S. Department of Labor released an update on U.S. labor productivity that may be good news for the U.S. economy, but might not be for the American worker: in the third quarter of 2009, U.S. labor productivity increased by 9.5 percent annually, the highest increase in productivity since 2003.
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Labor productivity, or output per hour, is calculated by dividing an index of real output by an index of hours of all persons, including employees, proprietors, and unpaid family workers." Productivity is output divided by input (hours worked), and can thus be increased in two ways: increasing the output, or decreasing the input...
