Why is UK output per hour so low?

cells

Value of the currency

A sandwich maker in englad might be able to make 200 sandwiches a day his cousin in India also 200 a day. Their productivity (sandwiches per hour) is the same but their $$ per hour is vastly different by maybe as much as 10x

jjlandlord

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

My personal opinion is that the primary reason for the UK being so low in productivity is that we are bogged down in almost entirely UK specific red tape...

The UK is one of the European countries with the least red tape, certainly the one with the least red tape amongst the major European countries.

Generali

cells wrote: »

Value of the currency

A sandwich maker in englad might be able to make 200 sandwiches a day his cousin in India also 200 a day. Their productivity (sandwiches per hour) is the same but their $$ per hour is vastly different by maybe as much as 10x

That's true for a sandwich maker but a cabbie in India will be on a Tuk Tuk or a rickshaw perhaps rather than in a car. A British cabbie can simply cover a further distance, I.e. is more productive, due to having better access to capital goods.

antrobus

KrytenIceCubeHead wrote: »

Post crash businesses have been screwed for investment, as banks sit on the money sent out by Government to repair their balance sheets, and investment drives productivity. Even Marky Marx (or was it Lenny Lenin) said 'technology is neutral'. ..

No, it was Melvin Kranzberg. Both Marx and Lenin believed in technological determinism, which is the exact opposite.

KrytenIceCubeHead wrote: »

...Working in IT, I've seen the 'plans' for recycling PCs go from every 3 years, which is well beyond when a computer has been overtaken by developments, to ... well, not.

Well, you only need so much processing power to run MS Office. Once you've got it, and the hardware hasn't broken, there ain't that much reason to replace it. On the other hand, if you want to run the latest games, you need some real power.:)

Cyberman60

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

No, that's not right.

UK average wages are higher than Germany, France and Italy.

(Haven't bothered checking US and Canada)

You're having a laugh. Germany's average for instance is well above ours as they have highly protected workers rights and do not have our low pay due to their much lower immigration. Our top wage earners may get more but we are talking 'AVERAGE' here. :rotfl:

Cyberman60

Generali wrote: »

Well the BoE calls it a puzzle. The BBC calls it a productivity puzzle:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31602582

ACAS calls it a productivity puzzle:

http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/o/8/The-UK-Productivity-Puzzle-is-employment-relations-the-missing-piece.pdf

The FT calls it a productivity puzzle:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f0eb7394-2043-11e3-9a9a-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=intl#axzz3UxvwASSd

Yet when I call it a productivity puzzle it's because I'm anti-Coalition...? The last time I voted in the UK it was Tory, not that it's any of your business.

Yes, it's a puzzle until commonsense is applied. :rotfl:

Cyberman60

cepheus wrote: »

I would expect productivity would lag output in a low skill, low pay type economy and this is what is being suggested here.

Good heavens, Cepheus agrees with me !! :beer:

Cyberman60

jjlandlord wrote: »

The UK is one of the European countries with the least red tape, certainly the one with the least red tape amongst the major European countries.

Exactly, and that means that lower hourly rates can be and are paid than in those other countries. Thus our unemployment levels are so low in comparison. :T

antrobus

cepheus wrote: »

..This suggests to me that if our economy is doing well as the government claims, it must be because we are employed for longer hours in lower grade jobs than the countries scoring more highly than us, unless they simply work harder than us....

No. Typical hours worked in the USA would be 1788 compared to 1669 in UK. There appears to be no relationship whatsover between hours worked and the productivity of the work performed.

Source OECD
http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?DataSetCode=ANHRS

cepheus wrote: »

..Perhaps this criterion is a better measure of how successful an economy is than GDP per capita? We should be aiming for quality work and perhaps lower working hours per week, whilst at the same time retaining an adequate standard of living.

There has always been a UK productivity gap. It has got worse in recent years. A member of the MPC, Ian McCafferty, gave a specch where he outlined the reasons why this is the case. Apparently one of the major reasons is more regulation.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/speeches/2014/speech739.pdf

jjlandlord

Cyberman60 wrote: »

You're having a laugh. Germany's average for instance is well above ours as they have highly protected workers rights and do not have our low pay due to their much lower immigration. Our top wage earners may get more but we are talking 'AVERAGE' here. :rotfl:

Hmm. We seem to have a higher average and a higher median wage than any other major European country:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_median_wage