Americans Are World's Most Productive Workers

jimpeel

jimpeel

Well-Known Member
From foxnews story number 0,3566,295556,00.html

Americans Are World's Most Productive Workers, U.N. Report Finds
Monday , September 03, 2007

GENEVA —

American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year.

They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report released Monday, which said the United States "leads the world in labor productivity."

The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg at $55,641, Belgium at $55,235 and France at $54,609.

The productivity figure is found by dividing the country's gross domestic product by the number of people employed. The U.N. report is based on 2006 figures for many countries, or the most recent available.

Only part of the U.S. productivity growth, which has outpaced that of many other developed economies, can be explained by the longer hours Americans are putting in, the ILO said.

The U.S., according to the report, also beats all 27 nations in the European Union, Japan and Switzerland in the amount of wealth created per hour of work — a second key measure of productivity.

Norway, which is not an EU member, generates the most output per working hour, $37.99, a figure inflated by the country's billions of dollars in oil exports and high prices for goods at home. The U.S. is second at $35.63, about a half dollar ahead of third-place France.

Seven years ago, French workers produced over a dollar more on average than their American counterparts. The country led the U.S. in hourly productivity from 1994 to 2003.

The U.S. employee put in an average 1,804 hours of work in 2006, the report said. That compared with 1,407.1 hours for the Norwegian worker and 1,564.4 for the French.

It pales, however, in comparison with the annual hours worked per person in Asia, where seven economies — South Korea, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Thailand — surpassed 2,200 average hours per worker. But those countries had lower productivity rates.

America's increased productivity "has to do with the ICT (information and communication technologies) revolution, with the way the U.S. organizes companies, with the high level of competition in the country, with the extension of trade and investment abroad," said Jose Manuel Salazar, the ILO's head of employment.

The ILO report warned that the widening of the gap between leaders such as the U.S. and poorer nations has been even more dramatic.

Laborers from regions such as southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have the potential to create more wealth but are being held back by a lack of investment in training, equipment and technology, the agency said.

In sub-Saharan Africa, workers are only about one-twelfth as productive as those in developed countries, the report said.

"The huge gap in productivity and wealth is cause for great concern," ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said, adding that it was important to raise productivity levels of the lowest-paid workers in the world's poorest countries.

China and other East Asian countries are catching up quickest with Western countries. Productivity in the region has doubled in the past decade and is accelerating faster than anywhere else, the report said.

But they still have a long way to go: Workers in East Asia are still only about one-fifth as productive as laborers in industrialized countries.

The vast differences among China's sectors tell part of the story. Whereas a Chinese industrial worker produces $12,642 worth of output — almost eight times more than in 1980 — a laborer in the farm and fisheries sector contributes a paltry $910 to gross domestic product.

The difference is much less pronounced in the United States, where a manufacturing employee produced an unprecedented $104,606 of value in 2005. An American farm laborer, meanwhile, created $52,585 worth of output, down 10 percent from seven years ago, when U.S. agricultural productivity peaked.

© Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2007 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
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The productivity figure is found by dividing the country's gross domestic product by the number of people employed.
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Great way of measuring productivity. I wonder what the variance of that is.
 
America can't have the most productive workers, because workers are people, and people don't actually exist.

Since you're telling people who disagree with you what to go read so they'll learn to agree with you, allow me to tell you what to go read if you disagree with my claim that people don't exist. It's a book called "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy".

The people you meet on a day-to-day basis (including me) are merely a figment of your deranged imagination. Just as you are a figment of my deranged imagination.
 
Since you're telling people who disagree with you what to go read so they'll learn to agree with you, allow me to tell you what to go read if you disagree with my claim that people don't exist. It's a book called "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy".
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Been there, read that, seen that, heard that.

Get that?
 
2minkey said:
perhaps you need a sense of humor? :rolleyes:
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Nope. Sense of humor quite intact, thank you.

Although meant in humor, your question was not entirely rhetorical. It was actually quite logical when one considers the dot-com debacle. The short article I linked to was to answer that aspect.

No offense intended though apparently much was taken; and for that I humbly and sincerely apologize.
 
It'll take some time to learn the various personalities on this board...we can be quite coarse, so let's all relax & kill the new guy :D
 
jimpeel said:
If you have something better, please lay it out before us for our edification.
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Actually my comment and prof's are on the same league. That figure, is merely an average and averages can tell lots of truths as well as lots of lies. That's what many people do with statistics, show the nice numbers and fool stupid people.

Now, if you could provide us with the variance or standard deviation then us with a brain could conclude how valid the data really is.
 
Jim... just remember were cranky in the morning and waspish in the evening... and god help you if we've skipped naptime. No arguments count unless someone cries.
 
Why would I search for the data? you're the one providing the statistics.

That page contains 0 times the term variance and 1 time the term deviation.

Revisions Between Quarterly Percent Changes of GDP: Vintage Comparisons
[Annual rates]


Vintages Average Average without Standard deviation of
compared regard to sign revision without regard
to sign
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Apparently, it isn't the standard deviation of productivity.
 
IMO it doesn't matter how productive you are, if you're not Dependable.
It also matters not if the Quality isn't there.

We've gotta kick our up coming workforce in the ass, and teach them some skills.
 
Too late for that. I hope you aren't counting on that Social Security check when you turn 65. :bolt:
 
Professur said:
Bring back apprenticeships.
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Interestingly enough, the military 'education' system is basically a formal class followed by apprenticeship. Once you get promoted to NCO status, you go through another formal class, and then another period of apprenticeship. Works quite well until you get the person who decides they are better than the system, and tries to change it...usually a lower ranking officer, and usually an ROTC or OTS grad...
 
jimpeel said:
Although meant in humor, your question was not entirely rhetorical.
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ummmm, i wasn't thinking very deeply on the question. but i didn't need to. i think most of us learned about GDP in... high school? and given how basic that is... it's like asking about a diaper and poop. of course it's in there. and the response was no more than an excuse to mention "poop."


jimpeel said:
It was actually quite logical when one considers the dot-com debacle.
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oh quit it your making me blush.

jimpeel said:
No offense intended though apparently much was taken;
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not really. just a bit of curiosity as to why you're coming on so strong.

jimpeel said:
and for that I humbly and sincerely apologize.
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yeah, okay. :thumbup:

you know this guy?

comicguypoint.gif
 
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