Productivity

Productivity will always reduce when new Workers are hired, their inexperience produces at s much slower pace than those kept specifically for their productivity. It can also markedly reduce from lack of Production orders. Data on Production Orders have been slow lately, not reaching the Public with the speed of Boom times. Government and Economic Surveys can be quite slow in Output as well, especially with a political interest involved.

The Christmas season starting the day after Thanksgiving has gotten off to a slow start. Some Surveys claim a gain over the previous year, some claim a remarkable loss--depending on which list of Retail stores are used. The Giants--Walmart and Target--both claim disappointing or lackluster Sales. The one element all Surveys have in common is lack of Customer Count. Some Surveys point to previous years of seeming slowness, and remark they were decent Sales seasons with Customers shopping later, even the week after Christmas. No one, though, jumps for joy over the data.

We are entering a Christmas season of special note: We are still 200,000 Jobs short of pre-recession with four more million adults; Consumer Debt stands at an all time high, with more Americans holding more mortgages than ever before; the Employment Compensation rate of increase was 2.6% slower than the Inflation rate over the last year; and the rate of Imports expansion is advancing faster than the rate of Exports expansion. The total rate of Job eliminations exceeded the 112,000 new Hires in November. Retailers shed Jobs in November, these 16000 lost Jobs were in the lower-to middle Income levels. Some might ponder whether Retailers expect a joyous Christmas season, at least not a robust one. (Information from NYTimes, Reuters, and AP) lgl