"It is not possible for this nation to be at once politically internationalist and economically isolationist. This is just as insane as asking one Siamese twin to high dive while the other plays the piano."
- Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965), American politician
As I waited for my flight last night, I browsed the March 22, 2004, issue of Business Week, drawn to it by the large WHERE ARE THE JOBS? on its cover. Intrigued by what I was able to scan, I decided to spring for the five buck cover price and read their Special Report as I flew to Savannah.
The lead article, Where Are The Jobs? by Bruce Nussbaum, is about how the traditional link between economic growth and job creation doesn't seem to be working right now. Nussbaum's theory about why it's not revolves around productivity:
"The real culprit in this jobless recovery is productivity, not offshoring...One percentage point of productivity growth can eliminate up to 1.3 million jobs a year. With productivity growing at an annual rate of 3%...rather than the expected 2%...the reason for the jobs shortfall becomes clear..."
He talks about the benefits of higher productivity and how America has been at "economic inflection points" such as this in the past, always emerging economically stronger after the period of adjustment.
"The Price of Efficiency" and "Productivity: Who Wins, Who Loses?" are also in the report and are good reads. There's commentary as well. All in all, this is one of the best collections of articles I've seen about what's happening in our economy right now. Kudos to the Business Week writers for sharing their insight.
2 comments:
Sounds to me as though production line workers need to kick back and slow down on the number of widgets per hour they make. This last slowdown has created an undercurrent of panic in labor to crank out the most with the least number of people--anything to hold on to their job. We are producing ourselves out of jobs??? How ironic.
If you don't produce more with less, you cannot compete. If you cannot compete, you go out of business. If you go out of business, no one has a job. Ironic, yes, but the way the world works. If we don't learn to produce more with our high-cost labor, those who produce with low-cost labor will eventually put us out of business. I think we'll continue getting better at it based on what I've seen in the past.
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