During the eight years from 2005 to 2012, output per hour expanded at an annual rate of just 1.5 per cent—the same as it grew between 1973 and 1996. More recently, productivity growth has been lower still. In 2011, output per hour rose by a mere 0.6 per cent, according to the latest update from the Labor Department, and last year there was more of the same: an increase of just 0.7 per cent. In the last quarter of 2012, output per hour actually fell, at an annual rate of 1.9 per cent. Americans got less productive—or so the figures said.
The Distribution of Work in 2015
You may have noticed some changes in the way you are working today, compared to how you did things 5 years ago. Maybe you do more on your mobile device, use more video or screen sharing? In December of 2014 we did a survey of three different populations with over 500 responses to look at how some of the ways we work are changing.
