Word: man-hours
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Every real gain in the U.S. standard of living comes from greater productivity-the ability of each U.S. worker to boost his man-hour output of goods. Normally, the U.S. manages to achieve a yearly gain of 2% in productivity...
Many industries far outstripped the average gain. Of 26 industries sampled by BLS, nine (including lead, zinc and copper mining, the synthetic fiber industry) showed a rise in man-hour output of 10% or more. Productivity in the anthracite coal industry was off 4%, but for all the mining industry, it was up 6%, equal to the total rise scored during the eleven preceding year's. Manufacturers' productivity rose 8%, compared with the normal...
Since liberation, Luxembourg's sturdy little economy-closely linked with Belgium and The Netherlands-had bounced back faster than many of its bigger neighbors. Its man-hour productivity was one of the highest on the continent (citizens could hardly remember the last bad strike); its currency, like Belgium's, was freely convertible into dollars. Because trade barriers in the Benelux nations are being broken down, Goodyear could produce in Luxembourg and still sell in Belgium and The Netherlands. The job was to convince Luxembourg that it needed a U.S.-owned tire plant...
Furthermore, said Nathan, the workers had earned a raise: "The buying power of hourly rates of pay ... in the steel industry increased one-seventh between 1939 and 1949, whereas productivity per man-hour rose by 50% ... In the short run, changes in productivity are more affected by changes in ... labor skill than by technology." (Another labor witness later conceded that "it is almost impossible to separate the contributions made by the worker, the machine, or management to increased productivity...
According to Clark's analysis, whatever industrial progress Russia has made has been largely offset by agricultural stagnation. Soviet productivity, rated in 1900 at .15 IUs (15? worth of goods per man-hour, at U.S. 1925-34 prices), dropped to .10 after the land reforms of 1918-19; it rose to .16 in 1927-28, but forced collectivization of farms in 1928-33 pulled the level down to .12. No Soviet statistics for the war years are available, but by 1947 Soviet productivity had climbed back to .14 IUs, just under the 1900 level. The U.S., on the other...