Why The U.S. Has A Productivity Problem

Labor productivity is a key, if often overlooked, economic indicator that policymakers use to gauge the health of the economy and guide fiscal and monetary policy decisions. But the U.S. has seen a productivity slump in recent years. And while the reasons for the decline are up for debate, the economic impacts are wide-ranging and can be felt across the board. So just how is productivity measured, how effective of a metric is it, what's behind the slowdown and what impact does it have on the economy?

Chapters:
00:00 — Introduction
01:49 — How productivity gets measured
05:46 — State of U.S. productivity
12:00 — Downsides of sluggish productivity
13:54 — What's next?

Produced by: Jeff Huang
Edited by: Dennis Donovan
Graphics by: Christina Locopo
Supervising Producer: Jeff Morganteen
Additional Production: Lindsey Jacobson, Mark Licea, Brad Howard

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Why The U.S. Has A Productivity Problem

[Skrivus]

"If you produce twice as much per hour, you're gonna get paid twice as much per hour." -Guy who hasn't worked a real job in 30+ years

[higgs]

US productivity led the world for years while wages remained stagnant. Workers noticed that the fruits of increased productivity all went to executives and shareholders. If it doesn't matter how hard you work then it doesn't matter how hard you don't. As a machinist for 23 years who went back to school to become a technology manager I saw both sides.

[emptylyles]

If you want a real answer don't ask the men in suit, ask the people whose productivity is supposedly "going down".

[ksieli]

I literally laughed when thay one guy said "If you're producing twice as much, you're likely making twice as much" 😂😂 I work my ass off and my pay went up 1.5% between 2022 and 2023.

[ericeandco]

Low morale, bad bosses, burn out, wages that don’t cover basics, no job security, no growth path, hostile work environment, ageism, companies that don’t want to hire, train or promote, take your pick.

[carsonmajewski]

They always want to blame the lower level workers and never look at how higher level people spend their day

[ChucklesQuad]

What I noticed most about this is the increasing wage gap and the disparity between the average worker and the top executives aren't discussed at all as a potential factor for slowing production. When workers feel valued they work harder, but for so long wage growth for workers has stagnated while we hear about massive bonuses in the tens of millions for a chosen few. Companies are more worried about benefiting investors than they are about benefiting their employees.

[hadrian]

If you want people to be productive, pay them enough so that they're motivated to produce.

[christophers]

Maybe people are tired of putting in all the extra hours just to see the workers being treated like SH*T. The pandemic showed everyone how little we are appreciated.

[toxicblackman]

CNBC is in the tank for the 1 percent. That's all you need to know about this video.

[VarsVerum]

As proven in countries like Japan, working more doesn’t always mean getting more productivity. It has diminishing results past a certain point.

Also you know… everyone broke af.

[JP-rcbz]

My productivity is in the toilet. With no raises on the horizon, I am super unmotivated to excel, so I do enough to go under the radar. Id love a shorter work week and compress my work into 3 or 4 jam-packed days rather than 5 8-hour days.

[Brandee.]

We're working harder more now than ever! I work 50 hours a week and still feel behind. My team is seriosuly understaffed. It's crazy!

[johnben]

We are already in the big crash, Inflation is a catastrophe. This CPI report is a colossal failure. To bring the housing market to a halt, the FED will have to pull all the stops. The unfortunate issue is that other markets are being decimated. If you want to stay green, you have to rely on a lot of diversification. Currently up 14% and being careful. Still a better deal than leaving it in a savings or checking account yielding 0-1 percent interest.

[privacyvalued]

"No one is sure why." Treating workers like disposable slave labor instead of with respect and with equal pay to CEOs. Everyone finally woke up during the pandemic and we can't and won't go back. Time to treat people like human beings instead of as slaves.

[EZGame]

It’s not about productivity, it’s more about who’s closest to the money printer. Politicians can raise their wage and invade other countries at the expense of taxpayers and unlimited money printing while not acknowledging increase pay in average Americans

[MitchellEdelman]

After raises and inflation net pay is down. Not hard to see why individual productivity is down. You get what you pay for.

[kelseyc]

What is the productivity level of a CEO? How does that compare to the productivity of a worker in a factory? Productivity measured in hours worked is just flawed. If the GDP is still growing and the population is declining, how can productivity be dropping?

[AK-vqbe]

Personally, my productivity is down at work because I have too much to do. My workload was doubled last year when two coworkers left but only one of the positions was backfilled. The majority of the non-backfilled position's work was assigned to me. Now I'm too busy running around putting out fires to get anything else done. I'm working harder than ever, but achieving less of the metrics that are tracked.

[GeliCarlosJ]

Maybe its less with WFH and more with the fact the salary is not keeping up with all the essential costs such as healthcare, rent, mortgage, food.

So why bother exerting more effort if you won't be reaping the rewards. People dont get paid enough