US: Is there hope for a rapid upturn in labour productivity? - Natixis

The United States will probably really be at full employment in the near future and labour productivity must therefore accelerate if such rather strong growth is to continue, according to Patrick Artus, Research Analyst at Natixis. 

Key Quotes 

“It will take a long time for structural developments (investment in new technologies, effects of corporate tax cuts) to have an impact on labour productivity - if they have any impact at all.”

“The only "hope" is then an upturn in productivity gains for cyclical reasons: companies’ recruitment difficulties drive them to look for ways to increase labour productivity. We seek to determine whether such a cyclical upturn in productivity when the US economy approaches full employment has already been seen in the past. The answer is no: periods of very low unemployment are also periods of a slowdown in productivity.”