Castells argues that the slowdown of productivity has been concentrated in the so called service sector. Then he notes
*the difficulty of measuring productivity in so called services. According tohe BLS productivity in banking has only improved by 2% a year. This seems to be a fantastic underestimate. Well since growth in real output is *defined* as the increase of hours worked in the industry, productivity growth is eliminated by assumption. *while productivity has not grown in services esp. for those countries in which retail employment has a great weight, e.g. US and Japan, some service industries as conventionally defined have displayed great increases in productivity, e.g., telecommunications, air transportation, , and railroads. Indeed where retail employment is relatively insiginficant, as in France and Germany, there has been substantial productivity growth. *mfg productivity growth rates have often reached so called Golden Age levels, esp. Japan, the US and to a lesser extent UK, suggesting that they have indeed assimilated new technologies (CAD, CAM) at a faster rate than France and Germany.
Yours, Rakesh