Is production going up even as jobs are cut?

[kentuck]

Are companies and corporations getting more and more out of less and less employees? From all reports that I have seen, that is the case. Even as wages were falling about 6%, production was increasing about 6%. That translates to more profits at less labor expense. Even as more and more people are laid off. Get the last drop of blood out of the turnip, seems to be the present strategy.

What should be done about it? The government and taxpayers pick up more and more of the slack even as companies increase their profits during this deep recession. Should companies get a tax break to hire more workers? Should they be penalized if they do not hire more people? Is this even an option?

[endless october]

1. we should unionize manufacturing further

and tariff the shit out of slave-labor made imports until they are more expensive than American made goods.

we'll give the foreign labor markets a chance to adopt OSHA, pollution controls, and a minimum wage first. after they don't do it, tariff city.

[Brickbat]

13. There should be a labor tax, where the difference between the cost of wage/benefits of the people

who actually made the product and the wage/benefits of a similar worker in the U.S. is added on to the product.

Even if it weren't a tax, but just a label to see the profit we were subsidizing, would be interesting.

[rucky]

2. It's a race to the bottom.

And I've been viewing hundreds of job listings a day. It's an employers' market for sure. They're asking lower wages and higher level of experience for the same positions - and judging how specific their requirements are, I assume they're getting what they ask for.

[Zywiec]

3. People are doing more to hold on to the job they have. n/t

[kentuck]

4. Workers are treated more crappy in a bad economy.

I think we could agree with that.

[TexasObserver]

5. Yes, but it's an illusion.

As jobs are cut, the current COSTS drop and that makes the spread between COSTS and REVENUES greater, which makes the perceived production increase as a function of dollars spent by the business to produce the goods or services.

Simply put, firing people lowers overall costs, and that results in a short term savings that makes such short term periods appear more productive than they are.

[Romulox]

6. Your OP describes the IDEAL under modern day "voodoo economics"

We can't beat the Chinese on price, so we have to work harder than they do. This is called "comparative advantage" and is the basis of all modern orthodox economic thought.

How did you think globalism was supposed to work?

[kentuck]

8. With our tax code..

We could make it more profitable for them to have more employees, rather than less.

[Romulox]

9. Wrong. The theory is that it is wrong to interfere with the "free market" for ANY reason

except that the rich have lost money. But that's it.

But I think you're missing the bigger picture. "Free trade" and globalism are predicated on just the thing you mention: ever increasing productivity as the only alternative to impoverishment at the hands of one's competitors.

That. Is. The. Entire. Point. Of. Global. Capitalism.

[asdjrocky]

7. The rich eat the poor.

It's the American way.

[uncle ray]

10. that is what i am seeing.

i work in a higher end machine shop, we make mostly medical implants. management knows they have their work force over a barrel and are not afraid to let it show. production workers are expected to run twice as many machines as before. they have said flat out that their strategy now is to fire high paid people and hire cheap labor from temp agencies, this is for the important positions, toolmakers, setup people etc. all of the people above me have been fired, and i know i make more than they want to be paying, so i know i'm on thin ice even though i have a spotless employment record. they have taken away many benefits over the last few years. we used to get a weeks pay as a christmas bonus. then a weeks pay contributed into your 401k(like that is gonna buy your kids presents). then half a week, then nothing. we used to get turkeys for thanksgiving, no more. there used to be profit sharing, there used to be BBQ fridays. in recent weeks they've frosted over the one window in the shop that looks outside for "security" reasons. then posted that the roach coach is no longer going to be allowed to stop at the shop, along with the people that sell stuff like tamales and dried fruits and nuts. no doubt, times are tough all over, i realize changes need to be made to survive, but this is the very same company that hired me in the middle of the last recession at a good wage and treated their employees well, now they treat their people as if they are disposable, shop morale is down the crapper, and they wonder why we are not profitable like we used to be. as a layperson, this new capitalism seems like a colossal failure.

[juno jones]

11. I've see the same thing in a production bakery I worked in early this year.

If two or more employees could cover work previously done by a third, there would be no replacement for the third when he left. If a solution was found to a problem in the kitchen (I, forever naif, unfortunately came up with a few of those) the time saved was immediately filled with new work.

More with less, everchanging schedules and quotas all designed around maximization of profit as opposed to a survivable environment for employees. It's cutting across all industries right now.

[gratuitous]

12. Production has continued to go up for 30 years, while wages have been stagnant

I wonder where all the capital generated by that more efficient work has gone, since it isn't going to the workers? Boy, that's a real stumper, for sure. I just can't figure out where what have to be billions, if not trillions, of dollars have gone for the last 30 years.