Odd Jobs
Manufacturing workers in Japan, western Germany and Italy improved their productivity more in 1990 than U.S. workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.</br></br>Productivity increased by 3.7 percent in Japan, 3.4 percent in Germany and 3.2 percent in Italy, compared with 2.5 percent in the United States, the Labor Department agency said last week. The German figures refer only to the western part of the country, which was West Germany before unification.</br></br>"Productivity ... reflects the joint effects of many influences, including new technology, capital investment, capacity utilization, energy use and managerial skills, as well as the skills and efforts of the work force," the report explained.</br></br>Actual output increased more in three other countries than in the United States: 5.1 percent in Germany, 4.5 percent in Japan and 1.1 percent in Italy. U.S. output rose by only 0.4 percent. The rise in U.S. productivity was due to the fact that the total number of manufacturing jobs decreased, so Americans worked fewer hours to produce more goods, the report said.</br></br>Italians also worked fewer hours, although the number of jobs in the country increased. In Japan and Germany, the number of jobs and of hours both rose.