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UK Productivity Crisis

richardg

richardg

Admonishtrator
A while ago, whilst frustrated with the poor levels of customer service I seemed to be getting in France, I compared UK productivity to France's. It'll be miles lower than the UK's, I thought. The French take too many public holidays, they are self-serving, they say non too often, lunch breaks are too long, too many people work in the public sector, they are always on strike, they pay too much tax to be motivated by capitalism, they're not that good on the internet and they are burdened with long and complicated administrative chores. The UK is much harder-working, more efficient, more innovative etc.....

So I was really surprised to find UK productivity is significantly worse. Since then, there seems to be more attention paid to the UK's productivity problem (or I am now noticing more reports and media opinions on it). It would appear it is a more serious issue than I had ever considered. And the solution seems to be in three areas, all of which are long-term projects, something the Tories clearly don't excel in: invest in people skills, invest in infrastructure and invest in technology. So, it is unlikely Boris has the stomach or attention span for a 10-20 year commitment in these areas.

Other reasons for the drop in productivity over the last 15 years seem to be those of an economy reliant on a boom-bust financial sector and massive corporations such as google, facebook, amazon etc get less and less innovative as they grow, and then employ more and more low-skilled people. Yet UK still seems quite keen on banking and big companies.

Conservative party has had 10 years to address this.....so what now?
 
One of the productivity problems has been a total lack of investment into manufacturing plant. We appear to be happy to plod along with outdated low output production methods, partly because they can be utilised with low cost labour, and partly because we seem to want capital plant expenditure to recover its cost too quickly
 
dudywoxer said:
One of the productivity problems has been a total lack of investment into manufacturing plant. We appear to be happy to plod along with outdated low output production methods, partly because they can be utilised with low cost labour, and partly because we seem to want capital plant expenditure to recover its cost too quickly
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I don't think that this is true, based on my experience in food manufacturing. We automate as much as possible, it's a high wage economy so automation pays for itself more quickly than in say E Europe. Indeed it's a source of ironic smiles amongst senior ops execs when they do the sums on it and say "Out in Poland they just chuck it on a table and sort it! Labour's so cheap that machinery isn't worthwhile. Honestly it's like Victorian England!"

It's something I've observed and I don't know why. We employ the usual CI techniques in most places, I've worked in France, they don't look more effective. Same in Ireland.
 
stevec67 said:
I don't think that this is true, based on my experience in food manufacturing. We automate as much as possible, it's a high wage economy so automation pays for itself more quickly than in say E Europe. Indeed it's a source of ironic smiles amongst senior ops execs when they do the sums on it and say "Out in Poland they just chuck it on a table and sort it! Labour's so cheap that machinery isn't worthwhile. Honestly it's like Victorian England!"

It's something I've observed and I don't know why. We employ the usual CI techniques in most places, I've worked in France, they don't look more effective. Same in Ireland.
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Overall, though, the media seems to be saying that there is a lack of investment in these areas.....I'm miles away from it these days, though. But I always felt in my years at DTI 2004-2016 that Uk was fairly good at it.
 
Rich,

This is something you've just noticed now? It’s been burning issue for a long time and is part of the UK poor performance in GDP per capita growth.

In essence, the Tories have a delivered a service based, low-wage, low skill economy full of McJobs. A decent article from 2016. Nothing has changed and Brexit wil make it worse, not better.
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...-other-major-economies?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
 
This is a developing country problem, trying to move away from the cheap labour, full employment but under employed model.
Discouraging zero hour contracts is a step needed
 
it may not be true in the food industry, I am involved in steel fabrication, and a lot of companies have changed little in the last 25 years. May be updated a few welding plants/systems but a lot of the kit you see in use is 30 or more years old
 
Why invest in plant people training and new tech when you can shift production offshore to give your shareholders their quick return?
 
Roger Adams said:
Perhaps the French, by way of an example, are happy?
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I was thinking along similar lines. Perhaps in the UK we're all feeling just a little gloomier.
Also as a nation we don't seem inclined to retain ownership of our successful companies, happy to sell them off into foreign ownership if someone is prepared to offer enough, then buy what we need from the cheapest supplier from wherever, not favouring UK suppliers/manufacturing. There seems to be too much greed from above, and resignation of everyone else to the way of things. That doesn't help inspire people, imo.
 
stevec67 said:
You clearly haven't listened to them grumbling.
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The stereotypical dissatisfied Frenchman :) At least it's still worth their while showing their disapproval.

In terms of quality of life, the UK is rated remarkably lowly amongst in neighbours and yet, IMHO, these rankings place too much emphasis on financial security and not enough on sense of family and community.

Even so, as most modern Western economies go (WITH the exception of France I accept :) ) , the UK is one miserable place to live and work. Is it any wonder that people are so unproductive in general?
 
richgilb said:
Conservative party has had 10 years to address this.....so what now?
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Hahahahaha! Please stop, I can't breathe any more! Honestly, if you are going to make jokes that good, give me a warning so I can put my drink down. A party that spent 3 and a half years and 2 elections to sort out "the easiest deal in history" and that hasn't done anything yet is going to fix productivity inside 10? Oh God, pass the corset, I think I'm having a hernia.
 
Colin L said:
Rich,

This is something you've just noticed now? It’s been burning issue for a long time and is part of the UK poor performance in GDP per capita growth.

In essence, the Tories have a delivered a service based, low-wage, low skill economy full of McJobs. A decent article from 2016. Nothing has changed and Brexit wil make it worse, not better.
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...-other-major-economies?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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Well, sort of. I recognise it was down over a long time but had never compared vs countires that are seemingly much less efficient in other areas.
 
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