'Worst decade for UK productivity since Napoleon'

Thrugelmir

economic wrote: »

Depends. You can be at work and have finished all the work and so it makes sense to utilise the time you have to be in the office for personal reasons like fb or online shopping.

I doubt the fact goes unnoticed. Then people are surprised when their employer restructures the business. Reduces the headcount and makes them redundant. Making a profit or operating at a break even level to budget isn't guaranteed.

Thrugelmir

GreatApe wrote: »

The UK outputs more than France does (given the exchange rate when I last checked)

So the French are not more efficient nor richer.

In terms of productivity only takes the French 4 days to produce the same output as 5 days in the UK. Despite the more expensive cost of employing people in France. Maintains their competitiveness.

GreatApe

Thrugelmir wrote: »

In terms of productivity only takes the French 4 days to produce the same output as 5 days in the UK. Despite the more expensive cost of employing people in France. Maintains their competitiveness.

that is just misleading BS

Saying it takes the french 4 days to produce the same output as 5 days in the uk leads people into thinking the french produce 25% more goods and services so are 25% richer than the brits. That is simply wrong, the french just work less they dont produce more. The two countries are actually very close in output per worker with either France or the UK leading depending on the exchange rate. Last time I checked the uk was ahead on output per capita

We dont have a productivity problem, our output per worker is one of the best in the world and above most of the EU and more often than not (depending on the exchange rate) its above the french output levels. And the french have some big natural advantages like a hell of a lot more land.

GreatApe

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/05/productivity-usually-bounces-back-after-a-recession-britain-economy

chris_m

'Worst decade for UK productivity since Napoleon' - is that Napoleon the Corsican, Napoleon the pig or a different Napoleon entirely?

Filo25

Some nice attempts to spin it here, but personally I can't view stagnant levels of productivity over a period as long as a decade as anything other than concerning and at least worthy of further investigation

With technological progress you should pretty much always see some kind of productivity growth over a period as long as a decade, its not really much of an achievement to say that it is as high now as it was at the height of the last boom 10 years ago.

While it is concerning on the face of it, there could be a myriad of causes, I still suspect since the GFC that while unemployment has been better than expected there is a fair amount of underemployment out there.

economic

i think the economy is doing amazing in the uk.

Thrugelmir

GreatApe wrote: »

that is just misleading BS

The pill is sometimes bitter to swallow.

daveyjp

Filo25 wrote: »

Some nice attempts to spin it here, but personally I can't view stagnant levels of productivity over a period as long as a decade as anything other than concerning and at least worthy of further investigation

With technological progress you should pretty much always see some kind of productivity growth over a period as long as a decade, its not really much of an achievement to say that it is as high now as it was at the height of the last boom 10 years ago.

While it is concerning on the face of it, there could be a myriad of causes, I still suspect since the GFC that while unemployment has been better than expected there is a fair amount of underemployment out there.

Interesting theory this morning. Our productivity is low because it is too easy to hire and fire people.

If you make it more difficult to particularly fire people companes are more likely to invest in training to get the most out of staff and companies will also invest more in R & D looking at ways of using machines to carry out processes.

Thrugelmir

daveyjp wrote: »

Interesting theory this morning. Our productivity is low because it is too easy to hire and fire people.

Not as easy as in the USA. If anything the reverse. People are unsackable in some instances.