The cause of poor productivity.

There is a silence in the media about the Governor of the Bank of England's comments yesterday about the poor efficiency of the British workforce. 

Not a silence on his pronouncement but a silence as to the proper causes of the poor returns or as the jargon goes, the "unit of production".

It is obviously a factor regarding our competitiveness and is crucial for our growth which, within the system, produces the tax returns to pay for the services the state provides.

In the discussions, play is made that much of our growth has been in low paid jobs jobs which, on the one hand escape much of the'tax take' because they they fall outside the sphere of HMRC  and also, in these circumstances the nature of the work is not very stimulating. Stimulation, either  in monetarism terms or the creative juice, both are missing in this type of work and it's no wonder that efficiencies are missing.

Another issue is "high immigration" which it is claimed, due to the nature of their life style, drags down wages. Single immigrants have all types of aims and aspirations, many without, at this stage in their lives, the cost of needing to be established and the amount of money in the form of wages which they need to cover their bills is far less than someone with a family and a mortgage.

The main problem it seems to me is that our national productivity problem comes from, yes a lack of efficiency but an efficiency which comes from the "tools" you have to complete the task. 

If there is a lack of investment and with it, a long term view as to the security of the market into which you wish to sell your product, if this is missing then it's hardly likely that the people around doing those tasks will be enthusiastic or, efficient.

In this country our poor record in terms of investment and even worse, our obsession with "short term returns". It seems in pretty poor taste, to blame the productivity of the worker.