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Productivity Puzzle

The UK economy is in a quandary: employment is rising, but the productivity of its workforce is not. Behind the numbers, Peter Day tries to explain this puzzle and why it matters.

Something strange is happening to the economy. In Britain, recession is not hitting the total number of people in employment, which means that the nation's vital productivity rate is falling. In the USA, productivity has gone on rising, detaching itself from the rise in jobs for the first time since World War Two. Behind the figures, Peter Day has been trying to find out what's going on and why it matters to a country's standard of living.

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Sun 7 Apr 2013 21:30

Contributors to the programme

Professor Erik Brynjolfsson

Director, MIT Center for Digital Business

Andrew McAfee

Principal Research Scientist, Center for Digital Business, MIT

Mike Wilson

General Industry Sales and Marketing Manager, ABB Robotics UK and Ireland

Terry Murphy

Head of Distribution Centres, John Lewis

John Philpott

The Jobs Economist

Jonathan Haskel

Professor of Economics, Imperial College Business School

Steve Chilton

Director, IT Services, University Hospital Birmingham

Alastair Bathgate

CEO and David Moss, CTO, Blue Prism

Broadcasts

  • Thu 4 Apr 2013 20:30
  • Sun 7 Apr 2013 21:30

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