But, productivity wasn't very high before the crisis either. FT print edition delivered Monday - Saturday along with ePaper accessPremium FT.com access for multiple users, with integrations & admin toolsPurchase a Trial subscription for 1,00 € for 4 weeks You will be billed 60,50 € per month after the trial endsPurchase a Digital subscription for 6,50 € per week You will be billed 37,50 € per month after the trial endsPurchase a Print subscription for 14,98 € per week You will be billed 64,92 € per month after the trial endsPurchase a Team or Enterprise subscription for per week They can choose to hire the most productive, while less effective workers don't get a look in.
The OECD points to low investment as a culprit.
This has allowed living standards to rise.Economies are subject to cyclical fluctuations – booms and busts. That can happen when there are high firm survival rates, or in other words, so-called zombie firms that have survived due to the extraordinarily low interest rate environment.How best to boost investment will undoubtedly continue to generate much debate.After all, some economists argue that with such low borrowing costs - the UK can borrow for 30 years at just 2.5% - there should be scope to borrow and invest. Over the course of four decades up to 2008, labour productivity – the amount of gross value added (GVA) generated per hour worked – grew at a remarkably stable rate of more than 2% per year. The first is simple:we can all work more hours. This has been the experience of the UK in recent years. Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club, said: "The UK's 'productivity puzzle' is a source of much debate and analysis. He resigns from the influential media company's board, citing "disagreements over editorial content". It’s possible that policy could have left us with higher unemployment and higher wages, but instead, the UK got lower unemployment and lower wages. Other countries, especially in Europe, have also experienced unusually weak productivity growth during the recent period.
the second puzzle referred to above). There is much debate and little agreement about the reasons for the UK’s productivity woes. That’s what we call productivity growth. Importantly, wages are related to productivity. Unlike previous recessions, productivity hasn't picked up during the recovery View comments Related Topics
Whatever might be the cause of the productivity slump - less productive jobs, misallocated capital, poor policy, or a permanent decline in trend growth - isn’t the problem.
Top economists are trying to figure out what’s going on. Indeed, despite solid economic growth and improving labour market conditions, productivity (as measured by output per hour) has flat-lined since its slump in 2009.