Like many people, I seem to be working harder, longer and faster than ever. And now I have my new best friend, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, to support me to work even more efficiently. Yet am I any more productive?
If we look at the UK data on productivity across the working population, the answer would have to be no. UK productivity had slowed by about 1 percentage point since the global financial crisis of 2008. Then during the lockdown months of the pandemic it fell by almost 20 per cent and has not recovered since. Productivity seems to be on the decline, not the ascent.
In the face of extraordinary technological innovations, why are we not more productive? For governments, the answer to the productivity puzzle
