Americans Are World's Most Productive Workers, U.N. Report Finds

Foxnews.com ^

[fabrizio]

GENEVA — American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year.

They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report released Monday, which said the United States "leads the world in labor productivity."

The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries

(SNIP)

America's increased productivity "has to do with the ICT (information and communication technologies) revolution, with the way the U.S. organizes companies, with the high level of competition in the country, with the extension of trade and investment abroad," said Jose Manuel Salazar, the ILO's head of employment.

The ILO report warned that the widening of the gap between leaders such as the U.S. and poorer nations has been even more dramatic.

(SNIP)

"The huge gap in productivity and wealth is cause for great concern," ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said, adding that it was important to raise productivity levels of the lowest-paid workers in the world's poorest countries.

China and other East Asian countries are catching up quickest with Western countries. Productivity in the region has doubled in the past decade and is accelerating faster than anywhere else, the report said.

But they still have a long way to go: Workers in East Asia are still only about one-fifth as productive as laborers in industrialized countries.

The vast differences among China's sectors tell part of the story. Whereas a Chinese industrial worker produces $12,642 worth of output — almost eight times more than in 1980 — a laborer in the farm and fisheries sector contributes a paltry $910 to gross domestic product.

[fabrizio]

get it? the Saddamites are unhappy: American free economy works while their socialist buddies worldwide keep being miserable, and that "is cause for great concern"...

[fortheDeclaration]

Glad to here about this report!

America is the richest nation is the world because Americans are the hardest workers on the world.

They are the hardest workers in the world because they get to keep most of what they work for.

Ofcourse, it goes without saying that all our wealth is a blessing from God, for without His blessings, we would have nothing.

[DB]

“They are the hardest workers in the world because they get to keep most of what they work for.”

That’s highly debatable.

[fortheDeclaration]

They are the hardest workers in the world because they get to keep most of what they work for.”

That’s highly debatable.

We keep more then the rest of the world gets to keep.

In the United States you can still amass wealth and move from worker to owner.

Other nations make that climb far more difficult.

[Smartaleck]

Glad to “”””here””” about this report! ????

[expat_panama]

The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year...

The operative word here is "average", in that some of us are more productive than others.  We see the variations here on these threads; while most of us like creating all the wealth we need, some feel they need to be protected by tax-hikes on other people's productivity.

[britemp]

At last! A UN report freepers believe! ;-)

[fortheDeclaration]

Glad to “”””here””” about this report! ????

Hey, it's early in the morning!!!.

Don't be such a smartaleck!

[hershey]

Surprise, surprise. Not.

[theBuckwheat]

Yes, averages are very misleading. The numbers are greatly distorted by outliers at the high end. For example, Google, a company with 10,674 employees has $13.43B in revenue or about $1.2 million in revenue per employee, which is about 19 times the average given in the report.

[Toddsterpatriot]

The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year...

WGIDS.

[sam_paine]

Once again, America reigns supreme. Unfortunatly, and I speak from a first hand perspective here, thanks to the globalists in Congress and the White House going back 15+ years, we’re losing our blue collar (and increasingly white collar) jobs to inferior nations with no concept of freedom or justice.

You realize that this is the point of the article, right?

• Blue collar jobs 'lost' in America.
• Unemployment rate at all-time low.
• American productivity at all time high.

  The market is smarter than every single person.

The USA is demonstrating a defacto industrial-imperialism. Moving the jobs to where it is best matched to the means of production.

Low-tech manufacturing (cheap garden tools and semiconductors*) to Asia, high-tech design and manufacturing (aerospace and precision semiconductor fabrication equipment)

We make the tools that make economies move, they make the tools that kids use in the sandbox.

*Yes. Semiconductors and PC's are "low-tech" now. You pay for the capital equipment, put it in a clean room, and teach illiterates to cart the wafers from process to process and press the green button. Meanwhile, Applied Matierials in Austin and Tokyo Electron make the multi-million dollar equipment for them that allows this.

[sam_paine]

Quick! There is no manufacturing output in the USA!

[sam_paine]

The numbers are greatly distorted by outliers at the high end. For example, Google, a company with 10,674 employees has $13.43B in revenue or about $1.2 million in revenue per employee, which is about 19 times the average given in the report.

So you imply that this erroneously or misleadingly skews the results.

Does it?

A few Americans created Google, an invaluable business tool that increases my productivity when I'm looking for data to do my job with (so much so that I can still jack around on FR and get my job done!!!)

We could take those 10,674 people, put screwdrivers in their hands and have them assemble bicycles.

That would 'bring back blue-collar jobs' and 'fix' the averages, wouldn't it?

[Toddsterpatriot]

A few Americans created Google

Actually, they were foreigners. Shhhhhhh.

[sam_paine]

Actually, they were foreigners. Shhhhhhh.

I thought all they did was pick lettuce?

[GWB00]

it’s time to become America Firsters

Can you name one instance where we all harmoniously went back in time and things were better?

[servantboy777]

I bet the U.N. gleaned their data from Wikipedia... :>)

[expat_panama]

It’s time to return to the principals that made this country what it is, it’s time to become America Firsters.

Lots of people have said they wanted "America first", but without thinking their efforts ended up helping the Nazis.  Easy talk without hard thinking doesn't to America any good.

These days we hear that less people in the US are employed than ever before.  The mere fact that this is not true doesn't seem matter because they hear everyone saying it's so. 

Same with this talk about falling wages.  Sure, totaling up actual wages is hard work, same with counting people working, but some of us do it for a living and everyday we see how truly great the American workforce is and how wrong all this talk is. 

America doesn't need more taxes.  Fortunately we don't pay Chinese tariffs, the Chinese do and that's their problem.  We do have to pay the import taxes that democrats tell the feds to raise but imo the less taxes the better.