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Este blog trata basicamente de ideias, se possível inteligentes, para pessoas inteligentes. Ele também se ocupa de ideias aplicadas à política, em especial à política econômica. Ele constitui uma tentativa de manter um pensamento crítico e independente sobre livros, sobre questões culturais em geral, focando numa discussão bem informada sobre temas de relações internacionais e de política externa do Brasil. Para meus livros e ensaios ver o website: www.pralmeida.org. Para a maior parte de meus textos, ver minha página na plataforma Academia.edu, link: https://itamaraty.academia.edu/PauloRobertodeAlmeida.

Mostrando postagens com marcador The Conference Board. Mostrar todas as postagens
Mostrando postagens com marcador The Conference Board. Mostrar todas as postagens

segunda-feira, 10 de outubro de 2011

Productivity of Brazilian workers - The Conference Board

Productivity of Brazilian workers


   On 3rd October, the US consulting firm Conference Board released data from its study of 114 nations regarding “worker productivity” where Brazil was ranked 68th.  This study showed that in 2010 the average Brazilian worker produced 1/5 of the wealth of an American worker, 1/3 of a South Korean and ½ of an Argentine.  Compared with the other BRICs, between 2005 and 2010, the productivity of the Brazilian worker increased by 2.1% per year, less than in China (9.8%), India (5.8%) and Russia (3.2%).


Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics demonstrate that between 2002 and 2008 the salaries of Brazilian industrial workers increased by 174% and by 133% for those in China.  Economists claim that this helps explain the loss of competitiveness of Brazilian workers and the increase of inflation in Brazil.  When salaries increase more rapidly than productivity, the prices of goods and services become more expensive.

   This ranking of worker productivity was elaborated by the Conference Board by dividing the nation’s GDP by its work force.  Insper professor Naercio Menezes points to the precarious status of education in Brazil as one factor, and another factor is the low level on innovation of Brazilian businesses, because these firms invest very little in the creation of new technologies.  “Innovation allows firms to produce more with the same number of employees.  In 2010, China registered 13,337 patents, while Brazil registered only 442.  This shows our very low level of innovation”, Menezes observed.  University of Brasília economics professor, Jorge Arbache, affirmed that “half of the Chinese population still lives in rural areas where productivity is low.  The productivity of the Chinese industrial worker is higher than the Brazilian because Chinese industry migrated from low productivity sectors (like textiles) to more sophisticated industrial products like automobiles and computer chips”.