Many of the recent articles in the media about productivity are inaccurate, there is a big difference between plain English "productivity" and the economic conc

Many of the recent articles in the media about productivity are inaccurate, there is a big difference between plain English "productivity" and the economic concept of productivity. The quoted productivity #s are aggregates measured by the BLS, the only thing it measures is aggregate US output (~= to real GDP) divided by total US hours worked (# employees * avg hours/employee). The reason productivity is up so much lately is that for the past two years: - Employment (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS) has been increasing at 1-2% annualized rate (because unemployment rate/labor force participation rate hasn't been changing, so employment growth has come from population growth, which was 1-2% when current 18-30 year-olds were born) - Real GDP (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDPC1 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDPC1) has been increasing at 3-5% annualized rate The reality is there is a giant consumption boom the past few years, but minimal increase in employment since we were already at full employment, so by definition there will just be increase in aggregate productivity. It is unrelated to concepts like how hard are people working.