US | Why the Covid-induced productivity gains will stick
The Covid crisis has accelerated the US economy’s automation in a way that we think will outlast the pandemic, leading to a sustained acceleration in productivity growth. Industries with traditionally weak productivity and considerable scope to accelerate digitalization stand to benefit the most, but others could also experience reduced labor demand from automation.
What you will learn:
- Most industries have responded to the pandemic by urgently adopting productivity-enhancing technologies, and we don’t expect firms to abandon these labor-saving tools.
- We see the shift continuing to leaner and more efficient operations in retail (self-checkouts), healthcare (telemedicine), warehousing (robots), and leisure and hospitality (digitalization).
- Acute labor supply constraints could entice companies to invest more in labor-saving technologies, especially in low-paid and labor-intensive industries. Our labor mismatch scorecard confirms that industries hit hard by the pandemic, such as leisure and hospitality and manufacturing, are seeing the most severe shortages.
Tags:
Related Services
Post
New Activity Trackers suggest momentum is waning
After a choppy first quarter of GDP data, our novel Activity Trackers (which incorporate proprietary daily sentiment data from Penta) suggest that economic momentum in EM Asia is on a softer trend in Q2 (at least outside of China) supporting our view of easing underlying inflationary pressures and diminishing appetite for further rate hikes.
Find Out More
Post
What AI means for economies, businesses, jobs & cities
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to fix the world's productivity problems, just as previous general purpose technologies such as steam power, electricity, and computers have, in our view.
Find Out More