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Has your boss been asking you to do more and more work because she just doesn't want to hire enough people? Help may be on the way.
The government reported Thursday that the productivity of U.S. workers fell in the first quarter for the first time in a year. That's because companies hired workers faster than they could increase the volume of goods and services they produced.
If that trend keeps up, it could bode well for job seekers.
The 0.5 percent drop was the first decline since a 0.3 percent pullback in the second quarter of last year and the largest since a 1 percent drop at the start of 2011.
Economists expect productivity growth will remain weak in 2012. JPMorgan is forecasting productivity gains of just 0.7 percent this year as companies add more workers. That compares with cumulative gains of 7.7 percent since the recession began in December 2007.
The drop comes after a string of steady gains in productivity, as employers slashed their payrolls during the 2007 recession but squeezed more output from thinner staffs. Some of those gains came from investment in technology and other efficiencies. Some of it came from asking workers - fearful of losing their jobs with the unemployment rate at 8.2 percent -- to work harder and put in longer hours.
6 comments:
Not that we should be playing video games and updating FB while at work, the stress is getting to many and the lack of work is getting to many more.
My brother's commercial painting business has been my barometer to the economy and it is down, down, down. All the nonsense that the economy is getting better is what you expect to here from those inside the beltway. Hey, what do you expect it is an election year.
I just got a call last night from my former VP and owner who told me that the person who was supposed to be supervising me is no longer there and has been gone for 6-8 weeks. I guess it didn't matter to inform me and no wonder he doesn't answer my emails. I guess this means I am not on anyone's radar so as they say on American Idol "you are safe."
Safe is a temporary status in today's world.
I guess it is like the laws of diminishing returns. Let enough slaves die on the galley ship rowing the boat and pretty soon you are not moving. No pain no gain.
My handyman finished the work for us. He was here 9 days, leaving at 2 on Thursday at 3pm to drive to an inner-city food bank to get food to take to another very poor city where he works at a church that cooks every Sat. for the poor. He billed us for 56 hours at $25 per hour. That equaled $1,400 and we gave him $1,525 (25 for gas running to Lowes for supplies for us plus another hundred bonus.) It cost us about $500 or so for supplies (deck stain, paint, Rustoleum paint to revitalize new furniture, doors to be cut for a closet, mulch, new stones for one area in front of deck, etc.)
This was work we'd put off for some time PLUS we thought long and hard and figured if gas goes up it will be more expensive to have done.
The funeral flowers I ordered in JANUARY for $60.99 NOW cost us $69.55) I ordered identical arrangement cost of fifty bucks and so from January to April 30 the price rose that much? Needless to say, I'm DONE with that florist which my family has used for YEARS. (Wasn't happy with the arrangement, either.)
People are stretched beyond their psyche. Just going grocery shopping you can see it on their face. They are being forced to work longer and do more for less money and that is just the beginning!
While I was working the bosses kept asking me to do more and more because they were stupid lazy incompetent a-holz. I am through with laboring for stupid a-holz.
Queen- If you can get Yes, Prime Minister on Netflex or whatever, view the episode: A Victory for Democracy. That will show you nothing ever changes. We played it this morning for our friend who was visiting and she couldn't believe how MUCH is the same in UK and Here and the world in general. It is a hoot and sad to say that it is telling how we 'think' we've come so far when we haven't. In any case, you'll laugh.
Edgar--In my experience, it's always the people at the 'top' who have 2 choices--either surround themselves with smart people so they look good OR THEY pretend to look good long enough to get by and fool those over them (in which case, they are usually so stupid that they manage to antagonize those working for them who are making THEM look good in the first place!) Then when the working stiffs quit or leave, they may finally be found out...but by then the idiots have either married into the firm, managed to blackmail the big mahoffs or slithered their way up the ladder to begin all over again leaving someone else to hold the bag.
I'm not cynical for nothing--it happened to me. I waited YEARS but my former boss finally contacted me with the "You'll never believe what she did to me. Did you KNOW that was going on?" Of course, I knew what was going on. It was gratifying only to see that what goes around, comes around if you manage to live long enough to see it.
I gave my handyman extra too. It was well worth it and the bathroom remodelling is gorgeous. He was tossing the bathtub that he removed into his truck and it slid right into his rear mirror. I paid him extra to fix it and for a job well done. He will be happy to work for me again.
Edgar so many managers supervisors etc and co-workers are idiots. It is exasperating so I am lucky now I only work with one idiot the one in the mirror. I don't even have a boss at least none that have reached out to me since the last one was fired. He was a total jerk and I am glad he is gone. He was the biggest BS artist I have ever had the displeasure to know and I only met him once.
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