Posted on 08/14/2020 9:02:11 AM PDT by jmaroneps37
U.S. productivity rose at a 7.3% rate in second quarter, the largest quarterly increase since 2009. Labor costs also jumped, rising 12.2%.
Labor Department report Friday... first estimate of second-quarter productivity and follows the first quarter’s 0.3% decline. Labor costs rose again in second quarter after rising at a 9.8% rate in the January-March quarter. It's biggest jump in labor costs since 2014.
Productivity mostly lagged during record long 11-year expansion that followed the Great Recession, confounding economists. Defined as amount of output per hour of work, productivity is key to rising living standards, the slow pace of growth in recent years has been a major reason that wage gains have stalled.
From 2000 to 2007, .. Great Recession began, annual productivity gains averaged 2.7%. But since then, productivity has slowed to about half that pace, rising at an average annual rate of 1.4% from 2007 through 2019.
The 2019 rate of 1.9% brought some optimism that productivity was on the rise, but coronavirus pandemic hit in first quarter of 2020, obliterating the economy and taking virtually every economic indicator down with it.
Economists have warned that the economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus would likely hinder productivity in coming quarters.
Last month, the government reported an astonishing 32.9% plunge in second-quarter gross domestic product, the value of goods the country produced in the April-June quarter.
It was the sharpest such drop on records dating to 1947, and almost entirely related to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, which has shuttered business temporarily and permanently, sending millions of workers to the unemployment line.
The Trump Administration has predicted a third quarter economic rebound, but many economists think that the economy can’t fully recover until the virus is mostly defeated.
The government will issue a second productivity estimate next month.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I think I read that July was the biggest hiring month in the history of our nation or something—my new college grad son is one of them! So happy he landed his first job.
But it’s 100% virtual—so now I have 2 young adult children WHO HAVE NEVER WORKED IN AN OFFICE and may never do so.
Sad—it’s hard to meet other young people with offices (and bars and churches) closed.
Not all that surprising. During a long expansion, employers are scraping the bottom of the barrel to find anyone with a pulse to work - not the most productive. And you run into a shortage of work area and tools. During a recession, you lay off the bums and have a oversupply of tools. During the pandemic, those sent home to work are the ones the bosses feel are most productive. Those just sent away are the least productive.
Banks will stay open for those who want to make a $1,000,000 deal, but there will be no tellers to cash in $20 of coins.
Anti-American Socialist Democrats Deeply Saddened!
Oh, they’ll FIND a way, LOL! ;)
AP? Did they say this would help Trump’s “wobbly” campaign?
Take that Kamala!
Has Barak taken the credit yet?
But...Mattress-Back (Harris) said President Trump “crashed the economy”. And no one present called her on it...
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