Worker output jumps sharply

[surfermaw]

Worker output jumps sharply
Productivity gains bode well for nation's hiring
JEANNINE AVERSA
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The productivity of America's workers soared by the largest amount in 20 years last quarter, raising hopes that economic recovery is taking hold and businesses will soon be stepping up hiring.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that productivity -- the amount an employee produces per hour of work -- rose at an annual rate of 9.4 percent in the July-to-September quarter, the best showing since the second quarter of 1983.

The figure, revised from a month ago based on more complete data, was stronger than the government's first estimate of 8.1 percent and notably higher than the brisk 7 percent pace recorded for the second quarter.

"The gains ... are helping companies' bottom lines so they can be less focused on cutting costs and more focused on expanding business," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Bank of America Capital Management.

Morehttp://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/7409169.htm
......................................................................
Bush administration got you just where they want you, working harder for less pay for their Business Friennds.....How long will it take the working class to open their eyes?

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Funny how fear of being laid off will do that.

--bkl
The Land of the Free and the Home of the Declining Wage.

[Occulus]

7. look at this one

"The Labor Department said Wednesday that productivity -- the amount an employee produces per hour of work -- rose at an annual rate of 9.4 percent in the July-to-September quarter, the best showing since the second quarter of 1983."

This may be literally true, but it doesn't illustrate the reasons. Workers are being expected to do more work for less money. Even if the workers don't actually lose pay per hour, if they're taking on additional duties without extra pay for those duties, it amounts to the same thing.

Corporatists would have automated processes everywhere and as little actual labor as possible. Take the USPS, for example. For decades we sorted mail the old fashioned way- manually. Then the letter sorting machine was invented, which was used for quite some time, but still wasn't very fast.

Now we use Delivery BarCode Sorters which can sort over 40,000 pieces of mail per hour. While this marked a huge increase in productivity per employee, those people who were LSM clerks now became "automation clerks". But it isn't ending there- some distributions centers are testing what's called the Tray Management System, or TMS. The TMS replaces all the clerks in the plant with a single, huge, plantwide robot that does ALL the work, leaving room for only technicians whose job it is to maintain the equipment.

Rule of thumb, then: As productivity rises due to automated processes, the number of employees, labor costs, and overall price per piece will drop.

This is why I couldn't ever own a business unless I was the sole owner/operator. I just can't stomach the idea of costing a person their livlihood. Maybe it's because I've been homeless before, but I honestly couldn't fire anyone.

[Cheswick2.0]

2. fewer people doing more work per person

WTF is this supposed to be indicative of besides a bad trend for the middle class economy?

[librechik]

23. exactly--when they lay off the two other people in your dept

of course the remaining one will have to do more.

[ewagner]

3. I was wondering when somebody would find a link

I heard this on the radio on my way to work at my part-time job last night.

Ironically, we were working short-handed last night and were asked to stay over our shift...fortunately it's hourly so we were compensated. But we did work our butts off last night.

Symbollically , this is going on all over. Less workers, more demanded of them. Bush* and his cronies have put ll the pieces in place: make jobs scarce, make less people eligible for overtime, demonize and destroy unions and workers rights to organize.

Cheeezzzzz....as much as I was concerned about the Repubs winning in 2000, not even I thought they could do so much damage in such a short time.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Statistics Out Of Context

With the rise in gov't spending, all that has happened is that a little of the excess capacity within the industrial base has been used. Since that requried no more workers, the per worker number has to go up!

The differential correlates >98% to the increase in the special appropriations spending by the gov't in Q3.

So, this is being trumpeted as good news, when actually, it is apropos of nothing.
The Professor

[seasat]

11. Hey Prof, I've got a question you might know the answer to.

I've heard that worker productivity is being influenced by the outsourcing of jobs to countries with lower wages. Ford recently announced that they were farming out parts to Chinese manufacturers. If a US company keeps the same US labor force but switches to cheaper manufacturing in another country would that result in increases in productivity or is the overseas labor force factored in? If this is one of the reasons for the increase in productivity then it is a further negative on the economy since jobs and real increases in wages are despiritly needed to combat the rising consumer debt in this country.

[lumpy]

15. I'd like to know the answer to that also,seasat

Conveniently, numbers can be so easily manipulated. Professor?

[TreasonousBastard]

18. That's partly true...

but a major problem is that the BLS numbers are flaky to begin with.

They still assume that most people are working 35.5 hour weeks!

Now, how many people do you know, particularly the 35% of management and professional types, who are working those kinds of hours?

Another problem is that productivity is measured by output divided by number of employee hours. This may work in a manufacturing or retail operation, but how does it work in the service end of things? Don't even get into contractors and freelancers who get paid by the job.

The BLS has no way to back up its numbers, and the error rates make the whole thing meaningless.

AND FURTHERMORE--

There is a fudamental problem that isn't being addressed.

Productivity increases have traditionally benefitted labor to some extent. If an employee makes two widgets an hour by hand, and you buy a machine that lets him make 50 widgets of the same quality, the employee would often see some of that productivity increase in his paycheck.

Now, the increases are not in technology making him more productive, but he's just spending more time at the machine, and not necessarily getting paid for it.

Higher productivity by simply squeezing more out of labor isn't really higher productivity-- it's a sham more akin to the "productivity" of slavery and can't be sustained.

Oh, and that marvelous new computer technology that makes us all so more productive-- someone's got to pay for it, often us freelancers and contrators ourselves, and often it doesn't help us do our jobs better, but just gives us more jobs to do. For the same money.

[UpInArms]

5. whoever penned the following

has an IQ of 10

The productivity of America's workers soared by the largest amount in 20 years last quarter, raising hopes that economic recovery is taking hold and businesses will soon be stepping up hiring.

because reality and any person (IQ above that of a kumquat) would know that hiring will not take place if productivity is on the rise - why in the hell would you dilute the productivity with fresh, untrained and new employees?

You (the corporate greedheads) are making out like freakin' bandits on the fear factor that you have instilled by cutting to the bone and into the bone of the workers - it has been ultimately effective and if you want to keep profits skyrocketing, the easiest way is to outsource to a foreign country that pays 10% of what you would have to pay here in our lovely land of the free to be hungry and homeless.

(mad about everything to the point of foaming at the mouth)

[lumpy]

16. Well stated, UpInArms

Sonetimes 2 plus 2 makes sense.

[KayLaw]

21. That's right, UpinArms

That's one of the silliest bits of nonsense I've heard lately! Just plain nuts.

[Fovea]

6. Higher output means fewer workers.

We need to Lower worker productivity.

[Occulus]

9. Mass labor strike.

Maybe the AFL-CIO needs to announce a nationwide, all-members strike, regardless of workplace.

AFL-CIO: "We're on strike until Bush resigns."

Grind the nation to a screeching halt.

[Patriot_Spear]

12. NPR interviewed the guy did the numbers- you're dean right...

The guy said that it had more to do with the loss of jobs and increased automation rather than any 'extra' work by the workforce.

[lumpy]

17. Call in sick.? Worker strikes ?

Dawdle on the job? Sorry, no hamburgers for you today, folks. I notice this trend has started sometime ago. Service really stinks whether it's with your insurance co, at the doctors office or the pizza parlor. Ever try to contact a live body by phone at Social Security or welfare offices. Take a number or punch a few buttons and take your chances. Can't even contact the dump. Beginning to find out what it was like in the USSR.

[Occulus]

19. My mom told me

that McD's is considering... automating their kitchens.

You heard it here first, folks, and she's worked there for over ten years.

[lumpy]

8. Lots of overtime for employees who are fortunate enough

to have a job, even at Taco Bell. The layoffs are working to pump up the phony numbers. Now all the Boss has to do is revise the overtime pay rules.

[Occulus]

10. here's how THAT would happen

"No overtime for hours worked past the 'normal' eight; overtime only in excess of forty hours per week."

Then schedule your people for four ten hour days. They don't get overtime under that scenario; if you're careful in your scheduling, you've suddenly got ten-hour shifts without paying a dime in overtime.

Or maybe * will just do away with overtime altogether.

[lumpy]

14. That's correct, overtime paid only

after a 40 hr week; been that way for a long time except for some individual companies who pay overtime after an 8 hr day. At least where I live this is nothing new. Yes, next step eliminate overtime pay altogether. One way would be to go to salary employment instead of hourly wage; companies don't have to pay overtime. I worked on salary for a bank when I started working in 1948 as a peon, no hourly wage. Curious as to when the overtime pay standard started.

[progressiverealist]

20. didn't you just describe Wal-Mart?

Sounds like it to me.

[54anickel]

13. They forgot to add FOR LESS MONEY!!!

From the bottom of this article, it states:

In a separate report that helped explain the weak labor market, the Labor Department said productivity surged at a 9.4 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the highest in 20 years. Unit labor costs fell 5.8 percent, the biggest drop in 20 years.

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7BE5C07946%2D6779%2D4B5A%2D8730%2DEF2FB951000A%7D&siteid=mktw

[Skittles]

22. I'm doing the work of two people

because they laid off too many people. I guess my productivity has "soared" - in a slave like manner.

[UpInArms]

24. and as long as you can

continue to "produce" the needed output (unless you have a major crack-up or "break-down"), they will not hire additional workers.

And you will be encouraged to continue to produce for the "good of the company" and be a "team player" and to not complain and try to get you to take no sick time or vacation, if at all possible.

I'm so sorry :(

[Skittles]

25. no bonus, can't take more than one week vacation at a time

first raise this year in three years