Where have the recent gains in US worker productivity come from?

Question

What percentages do you think are from increased computerization and/or automation, innovative accounting practices, improved logistics (shipping, inventory control, etc.,) or increased coercion of salaried workers to work unpaid overtime and forfiet allotted vacation/holiday time?

(coercion may be overt, i.e. threaten loss of job, or indirect, i.e. threaten advancement)

Speculation on any other factors in US worker productivity would be welcome.

Over the last couple of decades. I've heard a lot of people (experts?) credit this to increased computer usage, improved communications (e-mail, etc.) but it strikes me that people are working many more hours now than before. If these are office workers / salaried employees these hours are unaccounted for and not included in the productivity calculations. Has anyone attempted to measure this?

Answer 1

Worker productivity varies over the business cycle. Since it is measured as the revenue generated by work it rises rapidly as the economy recovers from recessions, then more slowly as the economy reaches the peak. If by recent you mean the last several years this has been an important reason. The latest data are showing much lower rates of productivity gains as the economy is near peak of cycle, In the longer term of 20 years or so, the improvement due to computers are probably the major factor. Since 80% of GDP is in the service sector the increases in manufacturing is less important that they use to be.

Answer 2

Most of productivity gains come from automation in manufacturing. Consider this: in 1962, the U.S. manufacturing sector produced 16.8% of the U.S. GDP and employed 27.7% of non-farm workforce. In 2002, manufacturing produced 16.1% of the U.S. GDP, but employed only 11.5% of non-farm workforce. Over this period, the real GDP in the U.S. grew 3.7 times, while manufacturing output grew more than eightfold. If I am doing the math correctly, it means that productivity in manufacturing was growing almost two percentage points faster than productivity in the rest of the economy...