About That Doubling Down
Here's a bit of confirmation that doubling down on America is not a bad idea at all. We lead the world - by a lot - in productivity. So says the much-vaunted-by-the-left United Nations.
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, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg at $55,641, Belgium at $55,235 and France at $54,609.
The productivity figure is found by dividing the country's gross domestic product by the number of people employed. The U.N. report is based on 2006 figures for many countries, or the most recent available.
Only part of the U.S. productivity growth, which has outpaced that of many other developed economies, can be explained by the longer hours Americans are putting in, the ILO said.
The U.S., according to the report, also beats all 27 nations in the European Union, Japan and Switzerland in the amount of wealth created per hour of work — a second key measure of productivity.
Norway, which is not an EU member, generates the most output per working hour, $37.99, a figure inflated by the country's billions of dollars in oil exports and high prices for goods at home. The U.S. is second at $35.63, about a half dollar ahead of third-place France.
The figures for Norway are skewed, as the report admits, by the gas and oil revenue of their offshore drilling operations. So, still think everything is gloomy in the US? Really?
Business, Economy, World news | Gaius September 2, 2007
Other Links to this Post
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Maggie's Farm — September 3, 2007 @ 6:02 am
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The Mahablog » Labor Day Links — September 3, 2007 @ 7:42 am
By johnmeister, September 3, 2007 @ 8:55 am
These numbers are calculated by taking the Total GDP and dividing it by the number of workers. That means all the illegals who contribute to the economy are not counted. So the actual productivity is lower. How much lower I don’t know.