'Worst decade for UK productivity since Napoleon'

Thrugelmir

Even Brexit nor Mrs May can take the blame for this.

Britain is now suffering its worst decade for productivity - the broadest measure of fundamental economic performance - for as long as two centuries, according to Sky News analysis.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that productivity - calculated by dividing gross domestic product by the number of hours people worked - is now lower than it was a decade ago.

The ONS said output per hour fell by 0.5% in the first three months of the year. That brought the level down back below where it was at the end of 2007.

According to Sky News analysis based on Bank of England and ONS data, that means Britain's economy has now experienced its least productive decade for more than two centuries, since the era of George III, when Britain was mired in the Napoleonic wars - and at war with America.

http://news.sky.com/story/worst-decade-for-uk-productivity-since-napolean-10938330

economic

what does this mean exactly for peoples quality of life? how does it translate?

what elements of productivity are missing? technology perhaps? maybe technology has improved quality of life and gdp can not measure this?

things like airbnb, uber, fb, google search, tinder, all things that would improve quality of life yet not included in the gdp. perhaps those houses "worked" are actually hours spent on google, fb, airbnb, tinder etc....

then you have things like averages which dont mean much. does not show inequality however is inequality even an issue when a lot of immigration has happened from poor countries? these poor immigrants have improved their quality of life 10 fold yet are classified as poor.

economics - fun and games.

Thrugelmir

economic wrote: »

what does this mean exactly for peoples quality of life? how does it translate?

what elements of productivity are missing? technology perhaps? maybe technology has improved quality of life and gdp can not measure this?

things like airbnb, uber, fb, google search, tinder, all things that would improve quality of life yet not included in the gdp. perhaps those houses "worked" are actually hours spent on google, fb, airbnb, tinder etc....

then you have things like averages which dont mean much. does not show inequality however is inequality even an issue when a lot of immigration has happened from poor countries? these poor immigrants have improved their quality of life 10 fold yet are classified as poor.

economics - fun and games.

Output. Value of wealth created.

Low paid jobs create little tax revenue to pay for the in demand public services and benefits.

economic

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Output. Value of wealth created.

Low paid jobs create little tax revenue to pay for the in demand public services and benefits.

perhaps low paid jobs are good for those who require low paid workers such as cleaners, nurses, binmen etc? even though not a lot of tax is generated, since they are low paid it means more money left in the pocket who utilise low paid workers?

LHW99

Companies did not lay off as many workers during the 2008 crisis as some experts seemed to expect, so presumably we are now doing the same amount of work in the country but using many more workers to do it.

GreatApe

Very misleading title. Actually not misleading, just plain wrong

It is not the worse decade for UK productivity

It is the worst decade for UK productivity GROWTH

In fact the last time we were this productive was at the height of a boom. Maybe positive news doesn't sell?


Anyway why did productivity growth not continue post 2007?

One reason for instance is that UK oil and gas and coal output has crashed due to simple depletion of resources. That means if you exclude that aspect of the economy we are actually more productive than we were in 2007.

I think perhaps the actual reason is the boom and bust cycle hiding things.

I mean if you look at it like this you see a stagnant decade



But why not look at it like this?

GreatApe

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Output. Value of wealth created.

Low paid jobs create little tax revenue to pay for the in demand public services and benefits.

But the UK is no less productive than France on a population basis. In fact we above France last time I checked, it does depend on the value of the pound vs the euro.

We just work more hours probably scratching our !!!!!! and browsing forums all day

GreatApe

Output needs to be consumed, maybe we hit a wall of consumption over the last decade. That is to say people dont want more to consume? This might also explain zero rates, people want more money but they are not consuming it/spending it they are just hording it.

I mean I am a good deal richer than I was a decade ago yet I do not go out more or buy more expensive cars or go on more holidays or buy more expensive cloths. I would say my spending habits are roughly the same.

Or perhaps the additional consumption people want is free so it does not show up on GDP. Things like watching pirated films, youtube, facebook, computer games, education, information etc is all free. Much more of that is consumed today than a decade ago yet it still adds £0 and 0 pence to GDP.

Also as I noted earlier we may be stuck at our current productivity level, its not good that it has not grown, however the sliver lining is that we are stuck at a very high productivity level much higher than most the world is at.

economic

GreatApe wrote: »

Output needs to be consumed, maybe we hit a wall of consumption over the last decade. That is to say people dont want more to consume? This might also explain zero rates, people want more money but they are not consuming it/spending it they are just hording it.

I mean I am a good deal richer than I was a decade ago yet I do not go out more or buy more expensive cars or go on more holidays or buy more expensive cloths. I would say my spending habits are roughly the same.

Or perhaps the additional consumption people want is free so it does not show up on GDP. Things like watching pirated films, youtube, facebook, computer games, education, information etc is all free. Much more of that is consumed today than a decade ago yet it still adds £0 and 0 pence to GDP.

Also as I noted earlier we may be stuck at our current productivity level, its not good that it has not grown, however the sliver lining is that we are stuck at a very high productivity level much higher than most the world is at.

it is no wonder houses and stocks have gone up and will probably continue to do so until we see new world changing innovation where capital can flee to.

economic

GreatApe wrote: »

Very misleading title. Actually not misleading, just plain wrong

It is not the worse decade for UK productivity

It is the worst decade for UK productivity GROWTH

In fact the last time we were this productive was at the height of a boom. Maybe positive news doesn't sell?

its difficult to stay away from the news/media. when you really think about nearly all of it is crap. i think its very bad for the mind and health to be reading the media at least on a regular basis. the crap that comes out from the media is very dangerous imo.

HornetSaver

GreatApe wrote: »

But why not look at it like this?

Linking the economics into the politics, most of the facts are somewhat counter-intuitive. For instance the pace of productivity growth was dramatically greater during the Labour period than the Conservative periods, whereas in real terms the lowest paid have done better during the Conservative periods than the Labour ones.

Regardless of where someone sits in their views of those two parties, the vast majority of people would expect the reverse to be true in both of those examples.