In 1940, one farmer supplied about 11 people with food for the year. Changes over time -especially in technology - mean that today the average farmer in the United States supplies 155 people with food for the year. How many industries can match that kind of productivity growth? But history is not important. A more

'Thingy' is a word used in the UK by many people to represent something whose name they cannot recall - a 'whatdyacallit', a 'thingymajig'.  All cultures and languages have such words. I use it here because it reminds me of the 'next big thing' (or should that be next big thingy)? This - according to

Has the open plan office had its day? When they were first introduced, they were seen as being facilitators of communication, interaction and cooperation - bringing disparate groups together. Now when I see them I think of them as being facilitators of noise and distraction. It was always the case anyway that some employees found

Fairly recently, the UK government issued a draft Industrial Strategy.  Any discussion on this seems to have been drowned out by the Brexit rhetoric.  Yet it is too important to ignore. UK productivity is low - wages are low - living standards are low. We need a kick up the backside, to shock us into

Last week we talked about productivity levels - and the conundrum about unemployment and wage levels. I suggested, as I have done several times lately, that we might need to reconsider how we measure productivity - since the measure used to compare nations uses labour productivity. But the growth of robots and other automation devices

Most of the old economic certainties have gone. For many years, the 'rule' was the as unemployment levels dropped, wages would rise (to entice workers away from others to your organisation).  Since the great 2008 financial crisis, this has not proved true.  Unemployment has dropped to the point where the UK is close to full

The UK government recently established the Productivity Leadership Group (PLG)  to try and boost the nation's productivity. The PLG says that if all except our most competitive businesses were able to improve their productivity to match the companies ranked 10 per cent above them, an additional £130bn Gross Value Added (GVA) would be unlocked every

The US has created lots of jobs since President Tump was elected.  I am sure he will take the credit - and bask in the reflected glory. President Trump should be careful, though.  America's productivity is not rising.  Any wage rises will be at the expense of inflation.  In a year's time, we may have

France takes the summer off.  many factories close down for a month while workers holiday en masse. Other European countries also take longer holidays than the UK. Yet the productivity of these countries is higher. Can anyone explain this - it is intuitive. I have voiced my doubts about the way we measure national productivity

A few of my recent posts have related to U K productivity and challenges.  This is not because the UK faces more challenges than anyone else (though Brexit is  causing some fears). The UK is going through a 'bad patch' but is at least trying to do something about it with new committees and task