“Each industrial revolution has transformed production, delivered better economic output, and, consequently, immense economic gains globally. But something has shifted in the past two decades—manufacturing productivity growth appears stuck. In spite of the continual improvements in equipment, software, and management approaches, the annual labor productivity growth rate in the United States was around 0.7 percent in the years between 2007 and 2018, and showed zero net average growth during the past five years. Labor productivity is a major metric of economic output, and gains in productivity are important because, on a macro scale, labor productivity determines the standard of living of people, nations, and the world. Currently, however, economic output is moving in lockstep with the number of hours people work, rather than rising as it did for much of the last seven decades.”

The article: Manufacturing goes digital: Smart factories have the potential to spark labor productivity