Despite a very modest beat of expectations US worker productivity fell for the 2nd quarter in a row (down 1.0% vs 1.3% QoQ), the two-quarter-average output per hour isdown 1.4% – the worst slump since 1993. Unit labor costs rose by a better than expected 4.1% (helped by a downwardly revised 2.7% rise in Q4), the highest since Q4 2014.
America’s productivity slump is the biggest in nearly a quarter century…
As Bloomberg notes, the confluence of falling productivity, higher labor costs and an economic slowdown are putting a dent in companies’ bottom lines, with earnings among S&P 500 Index members projected to slip for the fourth straight quarter.
As we detailed previously, there are numerous reasons for this plunge in worker-productivity, from perverted inventives not to work to unintended consequences of monetary policy enabling zombies, but perhaps the most critical driver is exposed in the following dismal chart…
51% of total time spent on the Internet is on mobile devices – in 2015, first time ever mobile is #1 – to make a total of 5.6 hours per day snapchatting, face-booking, and selfying…
This post was published at Zero Hedge on 05/04/2016.
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