Americans Are World's Most Productive Workers, U.N. Report Finds

Foxnews.com ^

[fabrizio]

GENEVA — American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year.

They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report released Monday, which said the United States "leads the world in labor productivity."

The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries

(SNIP)

America's increased productivity "has to do with the ICT (information and communication technologies) revolution, with the way the U.S. organizes companies, with the high level of competition in the country, with the extension of trade and investment abroad," said Jose Manuel Salazar, the ILO's head of employment.

The ILO report warned that the widening of the gap between leaders such as the U.S. and poorer nations has been even more dramatic.

(SNIP)

"The huge gap in productivity and wealth is cause for great concern," ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said, adding that it was important to raise productivity levels of the lowest-paid workers in the world's poorest countries.

China and other East Asian countries are catching up quickest with Western countries. Productivity in the region has doubled in the past decade and is accelerating faster than anywhere else, the report said.

But they still have a long way to go: Workers in East Asia are still only about one-fifth as productive as laborers in industrialized countries.

The vast differences among China's sectors tell part of the story. Whereas a Chinese industrial worker produces $12,642 worth of output — almost eight times more than in 1980 — a laborer in the farm and fisheries sector contributes a paltry $910 to gross domestic product.

[fabrizio]

get it? the Saddamites are unhappy: American free economy works while their socialist buddies worldwide keep being miserable, and that "is cause for great concern"...

[fortheDeclaration]

Glad to here about this report!

America is the richest nation is the world because Americans are the hardest workers on the world.

They are the hardest workers in the world because they get to keep most of what they work for.

Ofcourse, it goes without saying that all our wealth is a blessing from God, for without His blessings, we would have nothing.

[DB]

“They are the hardest workers in the world because they get to keep most of what they work for.”

That’s highly debatable.

[fortheDeclaration]

They are the hardest workers in the world because they get to keep most of what they work for.”

That’s highly debatable.

We keep more then the rest of the world gets to keep.

In the United States you can still amass wealth and move from worker to owner.

Other nations make that climb far more difficult.

[Smartaleck]

Glad to “”””here””” about this report! ????

[expat_panama]

The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year...

The operative word here is "average", in that some of us are more productive than others.  We see the variations here on these threads; while most of us like creating all the wealth we need, some feel they need to be protected by tax-hikes on other people's productivity.

[britemp]

At last! A UN report freepers believe! ;-)

[fortheDeclaration]

Glad to “”””here””” about this report! ????

Hey, it's early in the morning!!!.

Don't be such a smartaleck!

[hershey]

Surprise, surprise. Not.

[theBuckwheat]

Yes, averages are very misleading. The numbers are greatly distorted by outliers at the high end. For example, Google, a company with 10,674 employees has $13.43B in revenue or about $1.2 million in revenue per employee, which is about 19 times the average given in the report.

[Toddsterpatriot]

The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year...

WGIDS.

[sam_paine]

Once again, America reigns supreme. Unfortunatly, and I speak from a first hand perspective here, thanks to the globalists in Congress and the White House going back 15+ years, we’re losing our blue collar (and increasingly white collar) jobs to inferior nations with no concept of freedom or justice.

You realize that this is the point of the article, right?

• Blue collar jobs 'lost' in America.
• Unemployment rate at all-time low.
• American productivity at all time high.

  The market is smarter than every single person.

The USA is demonstrating a defacto industrial-imperialism. Moving the jobs to where it is best matched to the means of production.

Low-tech manufacturing (cheap garden tools and semiconductors*) to Asia, high-tech design and manufacturing (aerospace and precision semiconductor fabrication equipment)

We make the tools that make economies move, they make the tools that kids use in the sandbox.

*Yes. Semiconductors and PC's are "low-tech" now. You pay for the capital equipment, put it in a clean room, and teach illiterates to cart the wafers from process to process and press the green button. Meanwhile, Applied Matierials in Austin and Tokyo Electron make the multi-million dollar equipment for them that allows this.

[sam_paine]

Quick! There is no manufacturing output in the USA!

[sam_paine]

The numbers are greatly distorted by outliers at the high end. For example, Google, a company with 10,674 employees has $13.43B in revenue or about $1.2 million in revenue per employee, which is about 19 times the average given in the report.

So you imply that this erroneously or misleadingly skews the results.

Does it?

A few Americans created Google, an invaluable business tool that increases my productivity when I'm looking for data to do my job with (so much so that I can still jack around on FR and get my job done!!!)

We could take those 10,674 people, put screwdrivers in their hands and have them assemble bicycles.

That would 'bring back blue-collar jobs' and 'fix' the averages, wouldn't it?

[Toddsterpatriot]

A few Americans created Google

Actually, they were foreigners. Shhhhhhh.

[sam_paine]

Actually, they were foreigners. Shhhhhhh.

I thought all they did was pick lettuce?

[GWB00]

it’s time to become America Firsters

Can you name one instance where we all harmoniously went back in time and things were better?

[servantboy777]

I bet the U.N. gleaned their data from Wikipedia... :>)

[expat_panama]

It’s time to return to the principals that made this country what it is, it’s time to become America Firsters.

Lots of people have said they wanted "America first", but without thinking their efforts ended up helping the Nazis.  Easy talk without hard thinking doesn't to America any good.

These days we hear that less people in the US are employed than ever before.  The mere fact that this is not true doesn't seem matter because they hear everyone saying it's so. 

Same with this talk about falling wages.  Sure, totaling up actual wages is hard work, same with counting people working, but some of us do it for a living and everyday we see how truly great the American workforce is and how wrong all this talk is. 

America doesn't need more taxes.  Fortunately we don't pay Chinese tariffs, the Chinese do and that's their problem.  We do have to pay the import taxes that democrats tell the feds to raise but imo the less taxes the better.

[Brujo]

Google was founded by Larry Page (born March 26, 1973 in Lansing, Michigan) and Sergey Brin (born August 21, 1973 in Moscow, Russia), when they were students at Stanford.

Sergey's family moved from Moscow to Maryland (his father is a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland) when Sergey was 6 years old.

[Toddsterpatriot]

I thought they were both foreign born. Thanks.

[Yardstick]

Fess up — it bugs you that we’re the most productive in the world.

[Toddsterpatriot]

The labor department only counts you as unemployed as long as you are on welfare or receiving money from them. Once you are off, you no longer count as unemployed.

Wrong noob. Try again?

[Toddsterpatriot]

The establishment payroll survey, known as the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey, is based on a sample of 400,000 business establishments nationwide.

What does the number of employed have to do with your error about the unemployed? I don't see any mention of unemployment benefits here.

Try this.

[expat_panama]

...what brought about Pearl Harbor was FDR violating the agreement to stay neutral...

You can't be saying that Pearl Harbor was America's fault and not the Imperial Japanese war of conquest; it sounds like you're just disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing like your namesake did a half century ago.  He once said "the purpose of the opposition is to oppose".  His problem was that he never bothered to stop and think about what he was opposed to.  Sure, it was good that the Ohio senator opposed Truman's goofy health care scheme, but Taft went on to blindly oppose joining NATO, the Marshal plan, and kicking Stalin out of Greece.

...like you said, it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s true and what’s not. The labor department only counts you as unemployed as long as you are on welfare or receiving money...

What I was getting at is that it's hard work but that's not a problem because you and I aren't afraid of hard work.  The labor dept. counts everyone, and keeps tallies on who's working, on welfare, just keeping house, and they let us decide what we think is true or not --here's a partial list  --and we don't even have to take their word for it because we can check other sources or even take our own surveys.

[expat_panama]

"Try this"       "--here's a partial list  --"

Neat; it's either an echo in the room or I'm seeing double...

[narses]

See http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1890461/posts

[MissEdie]

No, we have more good-for nothing moochers we all have to work hard to support. Don’t forget, we have the fattest poor people in the world.

[dragnet2]

They are the hardest workers in the world because they get to keep most of what they work for.

Well that's mighty nice of them.

[narses]

“but to say we were just innocent and Hirohito hit us for no reason is a bit naive....”

So a surprise military attack when we are at peace is somehow justified? Is that your claim?

[narses]

I ask again, is a surprise military attack when we are at peace (and in fact negotiating diplomatically over the issues) somehow justified? Is that your claim?

[narses]

So that is a YES. You hold to the position that attacking while negotiating is appropriate and good. That is an evil position.

[narses]

“We weren’t negotiating, ...”

So twisting history is your game? You support evil. That defines you.

[narses]

More twisted history. We were negotiating with Japan. They attacked during that process. It is evil and you defend that conduct.

[narses]

LOL, try any decent history of WWII. The Jap’s didn’t even bother drafting a declaration of war until AFTER their treacherous attack. Their ambassador was still accredited to the US and had been, right up the last, involved in negotiations. On December 1st, Foreign Minister Togo cabled Washington Ambassador Nomura to continue negotiations “to prevent the U.S. from becoming unduly suspicious.”

It was a treacherous, sneak attack by a barbarous foe. You defend that evil. Yuck.

[denydenydeny]

"The huge gap in productivity and wealth is cause for great concern,"

In the same sense that grandma walking home from the bank after cashing her social security check is a cause for concern to Joe the Mugger.

[narses]

LOL, buy a decent history book. What were they negotiating? The sanctions against them placed on them for their unprovoked aggression against what is now Vietnam. They were barbarous and treacherous and you defend that infamy. For shame.

[narses]

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.

And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.

[Clemenza]

Your hero Ronald Reagan was a "free traitor."

You also forget that automation has been more responsible for the decline of jobs for the lunchpail set than "outsourcing." Industrial employment has declined in CHINA over the past 20 years.