Productivity Surges by 4.9 Percent Rate

Productivity Surges by 4.9 Percent Rate
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Worker productivity surged in the summer at the fastest pace in four years while wage pressures eased.

You are probably asking yourself how I could possibly consider this to be potentially bad news for the economy.

From 2000:
Farm Productivity, the Web and the Next Depression
I believe that Greenspan is worried about how the productivity increases of the early and middle 1920s may have fed into the 1929 crash, and then into the Depression.

Let's think about why productivity might have been rising recently.

How easy is it to automate the construction of a house? The entire process seems relatively labor intensive. We're slowing the pace of construction so clearly we are becoming more productive overall.

How about retail sales jobs? Companies such as Amazon.com really are productivity miracles. I can buy goods without even talking to anyone.

How about grocery shopping? My local QFC allows me to do all the work if I use the self-checkout lane.

If we keep automating and/or outsourcing our jobs we will continue to see productivity improvements, but what will the end result be?

See Also:
Retail Trade Employment
Automation and Inequality
Brazil: The Saudi Arabia of Oranges
Jobs of the Future, Part 1
Jobs of the Future, Part 2