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ipenka's avatar

I understand that in actuality its a small % of labor population and quite a bit of the right wing rhetoric you mention fueling the discussion in Japan now.

Out of curiosity how do you think the specified skilled worker program and foreign workers covering the part time roles and gaps at construction companies, conbinis, restaurants impact these analysis? Does it hinder wage hikes?

JBjb4321's avatar

It seems a lot of what's called high productivity companies are basically large companies that ruthlessly squeeze their supplier SMEs to capture an unduly large share of the value. So the bimodality is a feature, and labour cannot all go to the high-productivity sectors, by def. Would make more sense to give more bargaining power to the squeezed suppliers, they would suddenly appear to be high-productivity.

Richard Katz's avatar

These measures of productivity are about physical output, not revenue. E.,g. how many tons of steel of equivalent quality per hour.

JBjb4321's avatar

Ah excellent, thanks much for clarifying, and indeed that makes these measures quite valuable.

Erl Happ's avatar

Another nation with a productivity problem is Australia. Seems to me as an Australian that we could do with your analytical skills. Real wages are in decline. Cost of housing is ridiculous. Building industry productivity has not increased. We have a productivity commission that puts out regular reports. With the decline in manufacturing and the increase in employment in the public versus the private sector one wonders how long that this can continue?