From the Wall Street Journal comes this graph which illustrates the point I made when I talked about the January Oregon jobs report: there just has not been a big driver of growth - some big productivity enhancement that could really help speed our recovery. You could argue that the gains in 2009 and 2010 were from firms squeezing the most out of workers in response to slack demand but the gains since then are dismal.
2 comments:
I would be interested in seeing the data before 1993 if it were available, especially since the 1991 recession also produced a "jobless recovery" in 1992 as seen in 2010-2012. Reference: http://dfm.idaho.gov/Publications/EAB/Forecast/2009/July/Article_0709.pdf
Perhaps abnormally slow productivity gains are a natural consequence of the squeeze placed on workers during recessions.
You can make a graph for yourself from data much farther back by going here:
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/PRS85006092
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