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.

[sam_paine]

But to your latent concern for “blue-collar jobs”, in truth we cannot un-ring the bell so to speak. We cannot stop peasants in China, or Pakistan from going to school and learning a skill that they are willing to practice for far less than someone in the west thinks they deserve.

I dunno how you came up with the notion that I disagree, or am unhappy about this.

I'm not any more upset that wretchedly poor in China (whom I've met) are working in their own industrial revolution than I am upset that as a non-smoker, other people should have the freedom to smoke.