While the U.S. economy as a whole has grappled with a series of productivity-sapping crises over the past couple of decades—9/11 and its aftermath; the global financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession in 2009; and most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic—some states have been far more productive than others.
Louisiana isn’t one of them, according to a recent report from McKinsey Global Institute analyzed by Governing. McKinsey’s report looks at some of the reasons productivity among American workers and businesses has slowed in recent decades, and what can be done to give it a boost.
Louisiana is among 25 states lagging the national average in productivity, a group that comprises 43% of total U.S. employment and 37% of real GDP.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are six states—Washington, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and Texas—that supply one-third of the country’s jobs, and 40% of the overall U.S. GDP.
The latest productivity report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released at the beginning of February, shows that labor productivity nationwide increased 3% year over year during the fourth quarter of 2022. But, annual average productivity actually decreased 1.3% between 2021 and 2022, “the largest annual decline in the measure since 1974.” Read the full story from Governing.
