ABSTRACT
In the decades following the Second World War, labor productivity in the United States grew at an unprecedented rate. Not only was productivity growth faster than it had been historically, but it also exceeded that of other industrialized nations. However, in recent years the trend went in the opposite direction: even though our productivity has continued to grow, the rate of growth has been slower than that of our competitors. In his paper, "On the Relation of Employment to Productivity," Walter Oi notes that service sector productivity, as reported in official government statistics, both is lower, and has grown more slowly, than manufacturing sector productivity. Oi postulates that the increased presence in the labor force of women and part-time workers, who have less work experience than the older, full-time males they have replaced, could account for part of the slowdown in productivity growth.
