Do You Feel Like You Are Working Harder, Getting Less Done, Falling Behind Economically?

It is Because You Probably ARE.

An economic report by the Federal Reserve Board and a recently released study answer all three questions posed in the title of this blog in the affirmative.

STRIKE ONE

A story posted on Yahoo News, entitled “Americans Work More, Seem to Accomplish Less”[i], details a study that finds:

Most U.S. workers say they feel rushed on the job, but they are getting less accomplished than a decade ago, according to newly released research.

Workers completed two-thirds of their work in an average day last year, down from about three-quarters in a 1994 study, according to research conducted for Day-Timers Inc., an East Texas, Pennsylvania-based maker of organizational products.

The biggest culprit is the technology that was supposed to make work quicker and easier, experts say.

The reasons for this lagging personal productivity are emails, micro-managing supervisors and downsized operations, requiring fewer employees to perform more tasks.

STRIKE TWO

The Federal Reserve Board study, which appears on CNN News[ii], finds that between 2001 and 2004, inflation adjusted wages fell 6.2%. Measured before inflation, the median income increased a pathetic 1.6% to $43,200 between 2001 and 2004. Things have been worse in the recent past, however. The Fed study found that median income fell 6.7% between 1989 and 1992.

STRIKE THREE

Median net worth rose only 1.5% over the same period, the lowest increase in over a decade. Median net worth rose 10.3% from 1998 to 2001. One of the reasons net worth rose at all between 2001 and 2004 was the increase in housing prices.

Stock ownership by Americans in this period actually fell for the first time since the Fed began these studies in 1989. The percentage of Americans owning stocks, directly or indirectly (in mutual funds), fell 3.3% to 48.6% of Americans. The value of stock holdings also fell by 33.8% to $24,300.

BAD THINGS USUALLY COME IN THREES.
WILL THEY LEAVE IN THREES, ALSO?

What then must be done? Work harder? No, get a better job or start a business. And save more and spend less. Not what most of us wanted to hear. Not really what the Author wanted to have to say.

AS WE MUST OCCASIONALLY REMIND THE READERS, YOYOMF IN THE DESERT OF THE REAL!

[i] http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060223/hl_nm/life_work_dc
[ii] http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/23/pf
/consumer_fedsurvey/index.htm?cnn=yes