"Despite China's manufacturing prowess, its productivity is strikingly low. The average US worker in a goods-producing job produces $84,580 worth of exports compared with just $5,228 for a Chinese worker, according to consulting firm High Frequency Economics.
"That gap - a ratio of 16 to 1 - is partly explained by the higher-value items made in US factories, but also by the heavy application of capital and technology.
"'Automation and mechanisation is an incredibly important driver of productivity increase,' said Louis Kuijs, an economist with the Fung Global Institute in Hong Kong. 'There is huge scope for China to get more productivity out of its workers by doing this upgrading.'
My comment:
(a) Unfortunately products of
High Frequency Economics www.hifreqecon.com
is proprietary (not available to the public for free, that is). For years, I'd like to know how Taiwanese stack up against Americans in terms of productivity (dollars per hour; because Taiwanese work long hours).
(b) US Department of Labor compares productivity among nations, including Taiwan. But the survey is longitudinal (over times), not horizontal (between nations)--because, it says (and it is true), there are many factors affecting cross-sectional comparison, such as foreign exchange rates.