Carefully avoiding mention of the typical spike in temporary holiday hiring, of course.
Yep.
Remaining to be ‘splained are these facts:
Average work week is 33 hours at last count.
Unemployment (U3?) is 10%.
Underemployment + unemployment (U16) is 17.5%
Same store sales are up 1/2 of one percent?
Please... I await enlightenment....
Or maybe we decided to “Gorify” the numbers...if you get my drift..
LOL, the less hours worked the higher the productivity number, it is a bogus bean counter number. The less workers the higher the number, if you had full employment and a growing productivity number it might have a meaning.
[snip]
"What happens between here and there? While in our view, our forecast episodic adventure takes at least 2-3 years but, no one knows for certain. We forecast 2010 to be one of the very worst years of Greater Depression II; the year 2010 being the second cycle of several depressionary phases. The fall of Lehman and a surrounding crash was only Phase One. Before Phase Two terrorizes global markets, we suggest a short recovery arrives first."
The problem with these three measures is that two of the three are measured in DOLLARS, which no longer represent a fixed measure of value because the FED is cranking out paper dollars at a rate never seen before in history.
The employment and unemployment rates are supposed to be measured in bodies, but they have been trying to convert that measurement into dollars as well.
The writer is on to something. An 8% increase in productivity is inconsistent with what is happening in the real world.