Some economists believe the slowdown will linger for a year or two as a result of excesses during the expansion. Others see a year of economic malaise and a bounceback in 2002. The employment picture for February, though, showed that despite the layoffs, many workers are getting jobs. The jobless rate held steady at 4.2 percent, while the number of payroll jobs rose 135,000. Productivity is a measure of the economy's efficiency, technically, worker output per hour.
Technology plays a key role in making workers more efficient.
After a sluggish performance during the 1970s and '80s, productivity picked up in the '90s, especially in the last five years, rising at annual rates of more than 3 percent and at times more than 4 percent, though it slowed to 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter. Some economists, such as Northwestern's Robert Gordon, believe strong economic growth was the main factor in driving up productivity during the '90s. If it doesn't hold up, it will bode ill for the economy over the next decade. A more productive economy is a healthier one in the long run. Efficiency gains tend to keep inflation down, make companies more competitive and, Reich added, actually increase employment for the economy as a whole.