Trends

Productivity growth has slowed since 2004, and nobody is sure why.

Certainly, technology has done its job. In the wake of downsizing, budget cuts, re-engineering and outsourcing, it has filled in the gaps at company after company. As a result, supply chains are efficient and lean, the financial services industry is automated and manufacturing processes are flexible. 

One theory that may explain declining productivity growth has been advanced by management consultancy McKinsey & Company, which believes that companies have finally cut the non-complex transactional positions that benefit from productivity-stimulating technology. All that's left are complicated and nuanced jobs requiring experience, expertise, judgment, interaction and collaboration—or tacit knowledge. Increasing productivity for employees whose jobs can't be automated has thus far proven to be a challenge for software developers.