Happy. Happy. Happy. Job satisfaction hit a 36-year high in 2022. This is great news having moved through a wave of quiet quitting. There’s just one caveat. Worker productivity contemporaneously fell at the fastest rate in 75 years.
Why has U.S. productivity fallen?
- Quiet quitting Where employees do the absolute minimum on the job so as to not get fired
- Inflation Purchasing power is declining at a rapid rate as wages aren’t keeping up
- Transfer theorem Congress gave away $6 trillion. This confuses the benefit of being a productive member of society incentivizing poor behavior
-2.5% U.S. labor productivity fell 2023Q1 annualized—while hourly compensation rose 3.4 percent
19% The rise of non-wage compensation (benefits, bonuses, healthcare) as a share of total compensation from around 14 percent in the 1970s
Layoffs sometimes boost productivity by cutting excess staff, which reduces costs however recent layouts have not impacted productivity
5 straight quarters American worker productivity has declined at the fastest rate in 75 years
$1.8T cost to employers in lost productivity annually
Productivity
The amount of output of goods/services that workers produce for every hour they put into their jobs
National output / Total labor hours = Productivity
Gross Domestic Product
The measure of the nation’s output of all goods and services
Productivity falls > Economy shrinks > Quality of life declines > Less opportunity > Innovation moves away > Fewer choices
