Tag Archive for 'recession'

Is the Recession Reducing or Increasing Employee Productivity?

Published on April 23, 2009 in Productivity. 8 Comments Tags: , , , .

employee-officesStep into any office or place of business and spend some time eavesdropping on the conversations there. You will discover that the only thing that anyone wants to talk about is the recession. People are in constant discussion about what the recession means for them, for the places where they work and for the financial lives of everyone that they know. Is this ongoing conversation taking away from employee productivity? Perhaps to some extent we?re seeing a decrease in productivity because people are talking about the recession but for the most part the recession seems to be motivating employees to work more productively at their jobs.

A common phrase that you will hear around the nation today is, ?well at least I have a job?. A few years ago when people would talk about their work, they would often complain about how they didn?t love what they were doing or they were working too much or they didn?t get paid enough. Continue reading ‘Is the Recession Reducing or Increasing Employee Productivity?’

How Cutbacks in Hours are Impacting Productivity

Published on April 9, 2009 in Productivity. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

closed-signMany businesses are cutting back their employees? work hours because of the economic recession. Some businesses are having all employees take one paid day off every pay schedule; others are working a Monday-Thursday schedule and still others are shortening the work day. Whatever the method, the end result is that there are fewer hours in the week to get things done in the office. This is having an interesting impact on the productivity at many offices. While some productivity is lost because of fewer working hours and because of the negative working environment that this creates, many businesses may discover that productivity during working hours is higher than before the cuts were made. Continue reading ‘How Cutbacks in Hours are Impacting Productivity’

Bureau of Labor statistics: productivity decreases while costs increase

Published on March 11, 2009 in Misc and Productivity. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

For the fourth quarter of 2008, the news is not so pleasant regarding productivity and costs in the economical sectors. It seems that the financial crisis involving cut jobs, made economy sensitive and vulnerable.

The statistics for this period made by the US Bureau of Labor indicates that productivity cut down at a 0.4 percent, while costs increased at 5.7 percent more than the prior predictions. The problems will continue to appear as long as companies will cut jobs in order to reduce costs. In this way, the labor markets will confront with more problems because consumer will limit its further spending magnifying the risk this recession may be even worst.

This productivity decreasing firstly surprised the economists who were expecting an increase with 1.5 percents and not a 0.4 percent decrease. As a consequence, a revision for the annual rate is required considering that the estimated dates indicate rises of 3.2 percents. A comparison chart for all sectors is available on the official site of Bureau of Labor, starting with 2004 until 2008 and the differences are significant. Unfortunately at this moment no one can certainly say how and when this recession will end.