He thinks computers are to be found everywhere but in the productivity statistics.
Productivity, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fell 0.3% in the second quarter, while first quarter productivity was downwardly revised from an increase of 1.8% to a decrease of 0.6%, a 2.3% negative revision.
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The first is that America's potential growth rate is much higher than conventional wisdom suggests, because productivity is much higher than official statistics measure.
But Congress and the president will never know the savings unless they order the Bureau of Labor Statistics to start measuring federal productivity again.
According to data release today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), productivity (i.e. worker efficiency) rose 6.1% from the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010.
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This suggests an outright slowdown in productivity, though a big revision of the statistics on employment and hours worked in June could change all that.
But the statistics all show a catastrophic and continuing productivity decline.
If Elton Mayo's Hawthorne results still hold good, all the attention being bestowed upon the individual worker might of itself be enough to bring about a productivity boost that even the foggy radar of economic statistics can pick up.
Dr. Pychyl's interviews fit with the statistics that show companies are losing time and productivity to Facebook.
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According to official statistics (and notwithstanding the small surge in the first quarter of this year), America's productivity growth during the 1990s has been as paltry as it was during the previous two decades, an average rise of around 1% a year.
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