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Britain may think it lives in a vacuum. But it does not. China has also created many low wage jobs and decreased unemployment. So how does their productivity c

by hhas01 7y ago

Britain may think it lives in a vacuum. But it does not. China has also created many low wage jobs and decreased unemployment. So how does their productivity compare to ours?

lazyjones 7y ago
> So how does their productivity compare to ours? I don't know, the OECD doesn't have data apparently: https://data.oecd.org/lprdty/gdp-per-hour-worked.htm https://data.oecd.org/lprdty/gdp-per-hour-worked.htm My guess would be that it is catching up, but still much lower. However, productivity per hour (in US dollars) is still much higher in the UK than e.g. Australia, the EU-28, the OECD or Canada. I'm not sure why this study took 2010 as a baseline though, it seems to be a bias towards how well countries copied with the financial crisis.
raxxorrax 7y ago
Many things in the universe live in a vacuum. China doesn't need a high productivity because they have man power. Sometimes you get 10-20 or more "assistants" for a technician if you are there for a business trip.
- hhas01 7y ago
  “China doesn't need a high [per-capita] productivity because they have man power.” True; China doesn’t need high individual output as it more than makes up with sheer number of individuals. But, IANAE and even I can see how absolute per-capita numbers are meaningless outside of analzying an individual nation’s recent performance. On a global stage, the only absolute comparison of significance is per-trading block. So forget about comparing absolute numbers and look at relative trends, i.e. compare productivity growth. And this is why report is so concerning, because while China maintains its slow but steady growth in productivity (~6.6%), ours is flat at best (≤0%) and has been now for several years. The UK’s relative lack of bodies means we must always keep our per-capita productivity at a much higher level than China’s just to keep up. To use the popular aphorism: “Work Smart, Not Hard.” And we are doing neither, which means we’re falling behind. Yes, the reported flatlining is at least partly in consequence of the utter shambles of the Brexit process, but if post-Brexit UK can’t get productivity growth back up toot suite then it hardly takes an economist to project these trends forward and guess where it’s going to be 10 or 20 years from now. The UK has cruised far too long on credit and the legacies of empire. Now that we’ll really have to work for our living, it’s going to come as a nasty shock.

by hhas01 7y ago

Britain may think it lives in a vacuum. But it does not. China has also created many low wage jobs and decreased unemployment. So how does their productivity compare to ours?

lazyjones 7y ago

> So how does their productivity compare to ours? I don't know, the OECD doesn't have data apparently: https://data.oecd.org/lprdty/gdp-per-hour-worked.htm https://data.oecd.org/lprdty/gdp-per-hour-worked.htm My guess would be that it is catching up, but still much lower. However, productivity per hour (in US dollars) is still much higher in the UK than e.g. Australia, the EU-28, the OECD or Canada. I'm not sure why this study took 2010 as a baseline though, it seems to be a bias towards how well countries copied with the financial crisis.

raxxorrax 7y ago

Many things in the universe live in a vacuum. China doesn't need a high productivity because they have man power. Sometimes you get 10-20 or more "assistants" for a technician if you are there for a business trip.

hhas01 7y ago
“China doesn't need a high [per-capita] productivity because they have man power.” True; China doesn’t need high individual output as it more than makes up with sheer number of individuals. But, IANAE and even I can see how absolute per-capita numbers are meaningless outside of analzying an individual nation’s recent performance. On a global stage, the only absolute comparison of significance is per-trading block. So forget about comparing absolute numbers and look at relative trends, i.e. compare productivity growth. And this is why report is so concerning, because while China maintains its slow but steady growth in productivity (~6.6%), ours is flat at best (≤0%) and has been now for several years. The UK’s relative lack of bodies means we must always keep our per-capita productivity at a much higher level than China’s just to keep up. To use the popular aphorism: “Work Smart, Not Hard.” And we are doing neither, which means we’re falling behind. Yes, the reported flatlining is at least partly in consequence of the utter shambles of the Brexit process, but if post-Brexit UK can’t get productivity growth back up toot suite then it hardly takes an economist to project these trends forward and guess where it’s going to be 10 or 20 years from now. The UK has cruised far too long on credit and the legacies of empire. Now that we’ll really have to work for our living, it’s going to come as a nasty shock.