From Bloomberg:
U.S. worker productivity in the fourth quarter unexpectedly fell as the economy shrank even faster than companies cut jobs and hours.
Productivity, a measure of employee output per hour, fell at a 0.4 percent annual rate, the first decrease in a year and much less than the 3.2 percent gain estimated last month, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Labor costs climbed 5.7 percent, more than prior projections.
Not to speculate, but I suspect that a lot of workers got lazy once Obama was elected, because they knew they knew we’d soon have a cradle-to-grave welfare state where all of their money would be taxed.
My financial friend writes:
Productivity is effectively calculated as production/hours, which since we have a massive oversupply of capacity right now it means that demand has dropped so the only solution is to chop more jobs.
Productivity right now is directly related to job cuts – slash jobs productivity climbs because we’re fully demand based right now.
My theory – Gdp shrinkage is faster than job shrinkage so job cuts need to accelerate to keep pace.
How f-ing scary is that?
Jon H
Completely off topic, but must share.
A story in the New York Times mentions a person named, swear to god, "Coke Wisdom O’Neal".
TheFountainHead
The only way I sleep at night is knowing that if I go down, I don’t take anyone with me. If I had a family, kids in school, etc., I’d be shitting razor blades every goddamn day.
Atanarjuat
I don’t think workers have gotten lazier, considering that most productive, tax-paying citizens are conservative, but the threat of a cradle-to-grave welfare state is likely causing the financial markets to tank even further.
Ipso facto, and all that.
-A
DougJ
I saw that article. 3000 square feet on Riverside for $700 a month. It’s too bad the people who lived there were so annoying. I was looking forward to reading about some regular, middle class people living a decent life in Manhattan.
Kirk Spencer
Prove or retract. I’m tired of all the opinion dumped as though it’s fact, and am calling you out.
Prove your statement, or retract it.
Bootlegger
Thanks Attanut, thats the funniest damned thing I’ve heard in months! I swear to your god, every conservative I know is the laziest mother fucker on the planet. This is what is so precious about Cons, their states don’t pay as much in Federal taxes as they take in and they complain about taxation, we sunk a trillion dollars in Iraq and they complain we didn’t do enough, and the markets tank because of a lack of oversight and they complain about too much regulation. If it wasn’t destroying America it would be full-time hilarity.
Punchy
Why the fuck is this stuff "unexpected"? I always cringe when I see some economic news labeled "worse than expected". Holy fuck, what are these peeps expecting? Have they seen what Average Joe is dealing with?
As an aside, I normally dont notice these things cuz I usually cant spot a 5 or 10 cent increase, but grocery prices have shot up by 50 cents to a $1 on lots of items just recently. Wow.
nonymouse
No, Atanarjuat – I’ve just gotten lazier. Which is causing the markets to tank.
I’m just that important.
Tattoosydney
@Atanarjuat:
I do not think that phrase means what you think it means.
4tehlulz
@TheFountainHead: Oh so THAT’s why I’m shitting razor blades. I thought it was due to too much iron in my diet.
Bootlegger
@4tehlulz: If you shit razor blades, does that increase your productivity?
Dennis-SGMM
You just don’t want to admit that the entire US workforce has gone Galt.
Brian J
Since I’m trying to be the optimist these days, can we count this as some good news? From The Wall Street Journal’s economics blog:
Again, it’s not exactly the cure to our problems, but perhaps this will work not only because it could represent a substantive positive change, but a psychological one as well. If people start hearing that some news is indeed good, it will help them feel that the worst might be over.
Punchy
Glad to see you’re not resorting to 3-ways in this tough economy.
4tehlulz
@Bootlegger: Only if I work for Gillette.
Napoleon
No s–t. On Calculated Risk they had something the other day that US car sales or so low it would take 25 years to turn over the current inventory of cars in peoples hands. How long can that go on?
Brian J
Anyway, I think we’ve got bigger problems. I think allowing gay marriage was clearly a step on the path towards insanity. First it was man-on-dog sex. Now it’s man-on-robot sex. From the article:
Atanarjuat
@Bootlegger:
Booty, did a conservative shoot your dog or something? This great wailing and gnashing of teeth you’re displaying makes me wonder if there’s something more personal about this that makes you so resentful of all things conservative.
If you’re going to rant against red state contributions, be sure not to ignore who does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to enlistment and fighting in the U.S. Armed Forces. Hint: there’s a reason why so many members of the military are proud to call themselves Republican.
Occam’s Razor, dude.
-A
P.S. Kirky, I’m sharing my opinion here just like everyone else. Get over yourself, please.
Dork
Honestly, there’s some REALLY lonely people out there that, given the chance, would jump at the chance to wed their cat or dog. Guarentee it.
4tehlulz
So we’re turning Japanese?
Dennis-SGMM
For a while longer I’d imagine. I just had a new clutch put in my ’92 Escort rather than shell out the cash for a new car. OTOH, the End of the Model Year sales this summer should be interesting.
Dave
I really think so.
Bootlegger
@Atanarjuat: If a Con shot my dog he’d be in worse shape than my dog, but no, thats not it. I’m actually extremly optimistic now that Cons are marginalizing themselves. I once respected the liberterian version of conservatism until they rolled over for the theocrats and demagogues. But no more.
So I’m tickled to death when you come on here spouting The Nonsense and trying to slam anything to the left of you, mostly because its so far from reality its downright comical. You are obviously deluded and don’t have a lick of common sense, which is why everyone is sure you’re a spoof, though I think you’re simply masochistic.
I’m also not kidding about the lazy conservatives I know, every damned one of ’em complains about how the government, or women, or some minority did something to them to keep them from taking their rightful place as Master of the Universe, but that’s all they do is bitch. No personal responsibility, no rugged indiviualism and no economic initiative. Just pure hypocrisy.
Kirk Spencer
Ah, just opinions. No need to back them with facts. Got it – you’re a flat earther.
Or, as I just noted John Cole says in another comment line, an outstanding spoof. Either way, I can put you in my ignore list.
Napoleon
On the radio they are saying that unemployment claims unexpectedly dropped, so that is good unexpected news.
CalD
This seems like a pretty predictable development for a few reasons I can think of off the top of my head. For one thing, apparent productivity gains we’ve been seeing for the past several years in the USA were artificial to some extent; an artifact of the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates productivity. It’s actually one of the ways our government rewards outsourcing. (I almost didn’t believe it until I looked it up, but BLS freely admits this in the explanation of their methodology.)
Let’s say XYZ Corp employs 2000 salaried workers (management / sales / engineering / etc.) and 10,000 production workers turning out 1,000,000,000 widgets per year at a factory in Ohio. They decide to get on the gravy train and move production to China, so they close their factory and lay off the 10,000 production workers. Now they’re actually importing all their widgets but the BLS doesn’t reclassify them as a trading company. As far as BLS productivity stats are concerned, 2000 workers are now producing the same 1,000,000,000 widgets that it once took 12,000 to produce — a whopping 600% increase in productivity. Woo-hoo!
But you obviously can’t keep that up forever, even if it was real. On a related note, it’s getting harder and harder to get salable quality goods manufactured in Asia (for reasons that were completely predictable but are still widely ignored) so deliveries are starting to suffer even if order quantities are constant. And of course with people generally spending less money, orders are going to be off some too.
Another big thing is is that any significant change in the size and structure of an organization is going to impact its productivity in the short term as people adapt to changes in how/where/from whom they are getting the things they need to do their jobs (or not). So you get a lot of organizations doing large layoffs at the same time you’d expect to take a hit there too.
Atanarjuat
@Kirk Spencer:
Kirk, almost every blog features opinions contributed by people from all walks of life. Some opinions are rooted in fact, and some are based on earnest speculation. That’s the nature of debate, in case you’re new to such matters.
However, if it’s antiseptic, stone-cold facts that you are solely interested in, devoid of opinion or speculation, then you should be reading a variety of newspapers and stay far away from any blogs.
Somehow, I gather that you’re not really that honest about the whole fact thing, and are just using any excuse to bash conservative counterpoints such as the ones I’ve espoused here. Color me unsurprised.
-A
P.S. Booty, I’m sorry that you have such a knee-jerk hatred for conservative thought. I think that further exposure to ideas not absolutely rooted in liberal philosophy might eventually convince you that the world’s not as black and white as you’re making it out to be. Here’s hoping.
kay
Off topic, but important, I think. I live in rural Ohio. Our media comes out of Fort Wayne Indiana and Toledo, Ohio. The big news here locally is the Obama mortgage plan:
The following are the numbers for the "Toledo area" which would include surrounding suburban areas:
Nearly 43 percent of the area’s 89,000 mortgages qualify for refinancing under the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan announced by the U.S. Treasury Department.
I finally read the plan. This is a stimulus. It’s not just "keeping people in their homes". The fact is these homeowners are going to refinance at a lower rate and have more money to spend.
I’m back to thinking Obama Finance Team are brilliant. This is freeing up money that was going to high interest payments on mortgages, right where it’s needed, by allowing them to refinance at rates as low as 2% when they could not do that before.
El Cid
Well, if we’re going to play the explanations of lowered productivity in non-serious ways game, how about maybe workers finally noticed that increases in productivity for the last 30 years have not been shared with them, the workers who produced that greater productivity, and instead was spirited away by corporate leadership for their boondoggles.
gwangung
Sign me up for Boomer or Caprica Six sex. We’re not turning Japanese, we’re turning Cylonese….
Cheryl from Maryland
You think productivity is just connected to the employee’s psyche? With the downturn, I have an ancient CPU, out of date software, and no chance of getting anything updated or fixed. My network is put together with gum and string by the ignorant but cheap, who replaced those who cost more but knew what they were doing. Of course my productivity is down; I spend more time doing a task because what I have to work with is crap.
Mary
Atanarjuat,
What a knee jerk reaction to criticism! You came here and offered an opinion on the political affiliation of less-productive workers.
As a productive democrat and liberal, I think your statement is wrong and solely based on your bad opinion of democrats and not based on any real fact.
To that end, if you are looking for a blog to spout off ignorant, misleading hate-speech and expect to be agreed with, then I think you will be happier at National Review.
Also, if you intend for your opinions to be entertained here, then you must be willing to back them up. We may rail on some conservatives here, but you will find that they have done exactly what they are criticized for.
If your opinion is based on earnest speculation, then I would be interested to know what experiences or knowledge have contributed to this idea. If you seek to educate me then it will take more than a flat opinion, so try to bring a little more to the table.
gnomedad
I’m sure John would feel more secure if he could be Tunch’s beneficiary.
Comrade Kevin
Glenn Reynolds is so there.
Mary
hhhmmmm hottest robot huh?
I’ll take one from the Bishop line-remember the knife trick-very good with his hands…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEeAp7Ccw9o
Michael
Mmmmmm…..Boomer……
Mary
Why arent any of the cyclon males hot?
Sam is the closest we’ve got to hot, and Six is practically a supermodel.
No Spoilers PLEASE! I’m a couple of weeks behind.
Thanks!
bootlegger
@Atanarjuat: The world isn’t black and white, thus I am left of center. Duh.
alhutch
@Mary: This disparity has more to do with ‘knowing your demographic’ than anything else. Simply, most scifi is created by, and consumed by, men. Hence, no hot Cylon models for you. Sorry.
TenguPhule
Why not?
At this point, families need the extra income to stay afloat.
Mary
@alhutch:
Well, atleast there’s Lee. It does rule out any hope of me having a cylon lovechild-I love Hera’s curls!
Joshua Norton
Hmm. Since pets and robots are considered property, I wonder how they would be able to provide mutual consent to such an arrangement and sign a legal contract? Maybe they could also marry their couch or TV set while they’re at it. I don’t think polygamy laws apply to furniture.
What a putz.
Atanarjuat
@Mary:
Mary, I don’t mind criticism of my opinions at all. If you read very carefully everything I’ve written, you’ll see that I never object to name-calling, ad hominem, outright dismissal, sneering, and all the other little tactics that leftists seem to favor so much in any discussion.
It just seems to me that liberals expect any views that contradict their own cocooned delusions to require absolute and exhausting proof to be paired alongside. Talk about tedious. Yet, when liberals say one thing or another, all their fellow leftists fist-bump each other approvingly and require no further proof beyond agreeing to the party line.
Every. Single. Time.
And that’s what I’m up against. That’s fine, and I’m only pointing out that you’re tasking me with what you’d never require of your own fellow partisans. So please pardon me if I don’t take your exhortation that I should add footnotes and long citations to all my comments with any seriousness, considering the ongoing double standard among Obama Juicers.
-A
Atanarjuat
@bootlegger:
Now that’s progress, Booty. I’m encouraged. Please post further updates of any newer revelations that occur to you.
-A
Blue Raven
@Atanarjuat:
I’m giggling madly here. Nicely done, Atanarjuat. Nicely done. Beautiful spoofery there.
Steeplejack
@Dave:
Haw! Good one. I was thinking the same thing, but you beat me to it.
Third Eye Open
@Blue Raven:
It’s not concerned with anything but the expulsion of light and heat.
It’s a contrarian, plain and simple. What a Simple life, leeching off your little kicks from the emotionally-productive members of society. Like a little Karmic welfare recipient.
Origuy
@Mary: I’ll take a Cherry 2000. (Not really. She was pretty, but not much in the brains department.)
Mary
@Atanarjuat:
Suit yourself, it would only serve to strengthen your point. Any proof that supports that the "most productive, tax-paying citizens are conservative" would be farce anyway. That’s why Kirk Spencer called you out. The thing is that you cannot prove it, you just can’t.
Look around, you are in a liberal blog, one reason people like blogs is the opportunity to interact with like-minded people. Another reason is that some people like to say whatever they want with no accountability. You can write whatever you want, but dont pretend that you are taking the high road. You aren’t.