The BLS released 2021 figures for total factor productivity today:
I'm on vacation, so I don't feel like diving too deeply into this, but TFP is generally taken to measure productivity improvements from the adoption of improved technology. This means that the two industries that drove most of the efficiency gains from technology during the pandemic year of 2021 were Entertainment & Recreation and Accommodations & Food Service. Those would not have been my first guesses, but this might explain why both these industries (a) have been slow to return to pre-pandemic staffing levels (they didn't need to), and (b) are pretty profitable right now.
What happened to mining and ag/forestry?
Probably a bunch of damn hippies chaining themselves to trees or something.
Seriously, though, I presume the Ag/Forestry declines came from the crash in demand for various food commodities, building material, etc. Remember the 2021 spike in lumber prices because all these sawmills were shuttered during the pandemic and it took months to rehire enough people to start them up again? I recall stories about farmers plowing under thousands of acres of crops like potatoes because the cruise/banquet industry was mostly shut down for a year.
...most of the efficiency gains from technology during the pandemic year of 2021 were Entertainment & Recreation and Accommodations & Food Service. Those would not have been my first guesses...
Makes sense, though, when you think about it. These sectors were highly adversely affected by the events of 2020, and so shed more employees than average. As business recovered in 2021, their re-staffing challenges were commensurately steep, and this likely generated significant investments in labor saving technology or the implementation of labor-saving practices. And so they saw robust productivity gains.
or, as is the case at my local CVS, the store continues to function with 50-90% less staff. Nobody can really complain, because it's the same everywhere. Massive improvements in productivity, major increase in suckitude.
Yep. Zero question. But that suckitude may well show up in "good" productivity statistics.