Productivity
Opinion
For subscribers
NSW Treasury kicks off the new realism: Productivity won’t be speeding up
Economists don’t know as much about what causes productivity improvement as they ought to.
- by Ross Gittins
Latest
Opinion
The lowdown
Stronger union rights can mean more productive, sustainable workplaces
Legal restrictions on unions’ workplace access have directly contributed to the significant rise in wage theft in Australia.
- by Chris F Wright
Opinion
Opinion
Our productivity problem may not be as bad as it looks
While the RBA is concerned about weak productivity growth, some economists question if recent trends can be taken at face value.
- by Clancy Yeates
From childcare to yoga instructors, non-compete clauses are becoming the norm
Research has found contracts designed to protect company secrets are affecting low-skilled industries too – and it’s threatening the entire economy.
- by Caitlin Fitzsimmons and Shane Wright
Is the secret to easing the mental load hiding in plain sight?
Feeling bogged down by life admin? Help might be less than a Google away.
- by Kimberly Gillan
Biggest losers of AI boom are knowledge workers, McKinsey says
The AI transformation will pile pressure on the labor force, especially for workers whose activities “were previously considered to be relatively immune from automation”.
- by Alex Tanzi
Opinion
Jobs
Wish you had more days off? Well, you could have
We could be working a 15-hour week, but we’ve chosen to take the money and the extra stuff rather than the extra leisure.
- by Ross Gittins
Analysis
Minimum wage
Why Fair Work’s wage decision reveals Australia’s biggest economic shortcoming
No one is a winner from the most recent minimum wage increase. It just highlights the need for real economic changes.
- by Shane Wright
Exclusive
Sydney house prices
Sydney’s richest suburbs need to be higher, denser to solve housing crisis: productivity commissioner
The NSW productivity commissioner wants Sydneysiders to get used to living in apartments, and has called for increased density in the inner city.
- by Michael McGowan
Opinion
For subscribers
A good life: The reason we have become so well off
The driver behind much of our prosperity has been government and the taxes it has imposed.
- by Ross Gittins
Opinion
For subscribers
Most of us don’t really want to be rich, for better or worse
If we simply prioritised getting wealthier, there is a considerable risk other dimensions of our lives would suffer.
- by Ross Gittins