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 has distorted this figure. The cost of the robots is not part of labour cost – and their g=hours are not part of labour hours.
So, nations that have automated the most lose in the productivity figures. This does not seem right.
This investment goes unrewarded and we are no longer comparing like with like.