Gross Domestic Productivity
Gross Domestic Productivity
How the US worker is stacking up to the competition.
A good friend of mine just returned from the Canary Islands, a small chain of islands off the northwestern coast of Africa. “It was beautiful”, he said, “but nobody is serious about work there.” He then followed with factoid that most would consider a deal breaker for any potential vacation destination: Starbucks didn’t open until 10 AM.
Not only does Starbucks open at unreasonably early hours in most US locations (5 AM), but we are also not content with one choice for our morning brown. According to Statista, there are approximately 38,400 coffee shops in the US represented by thousands of brands. Although, Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts make up over 2/3rd of these.
We love our caffeinated beverages and there is an unspoken social contract exhibiting a zero-tolerance policy for any coffee shop opening later then 9:00 am. They are dealt with expeditiously by boycott – none shall survive.
It’s not that we, as Americans, are cold hearted. We just need to move on when the clock strikes 9 AM, or even earlier for many. Our time is demanded elsewhere. There are TPS reports to be filed and customer complaints to endlessly escalate! All these things require copious amounts of caffeine.
This implies that we work strenuously. I have come to believe over the years, mistakenly I might add, that the American worker is just the best. We work harder, longer, and smarter than anyone else in the world.
Curiously, I sure do see a lot of people out and about in the middle of the weekday. Many of them loitering at coffee shops. Then again, what am I doing there, being out and about myself? Something isn’t adding up.
According to the Organization for Economic and Development (OECD), the US is slightly above average when it comes to annual hours worked, 1,811 as of 2022. This works out to 34.83 hours per week.
Source: Organization for Economic and Development (OECD)
Now, there’s showing up to work and there’s showing up to work and actually working. As the saying goes ‘it’s better to work smart than work hard’.
This is why it’s difficult to measure how efficiently we’re applying ourselves simply by labor hours. No, logging into your employers’ portal and moving your mouse every hour on your work-from-home days does not count as productive.
The next chart takes the total GDP of a country ($25.4T in 2023 for US) and calculates how efficiently we cram units of GDP into each hour worked. It’s an efficiency measure. Higher is better if productivity is the goal.
Source: Organization for Economic and Development (OECD)
Now, the US shows up in the middle of the pack. Perhaps there was a time the American did outwork everyone else, but those times are not now. I recall stories of my grandfather pulling double shifts at Armco Steel, frequently clocking in greater than 60-hour work weeks.
Stories like these can imprint upon us feelings of historical inferiority. However, keep in mind that my grandfather lived during a time when most households were single income only. Nowadays, there are two workers per household. A little tidbit the ole-timers neglect to mention in their braggadocios memoirs.
Historical comparisons aside, it’s rather impossible to know with any certainty which citizenry works the hardest. There’s the problem of data reliability, for one. There’re also huge variances in what we consider valuable, which isn’t factored into the GDP calculation. For example, the hours we spend in not-for-profit service are simply not counted.
Bottom line, America is still a place employers can find reliable labor, albeit one with a preference for work-life balance. We may not be the most productive, but we know how to have fun and proudly show the world “this is the way”. Also, we demonstrate the importance of opening your coffee shops on time.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
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