The American worker is becoming more productive

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. America is getting better at getting things done. Take Vic Viktorov, a gym owner who increased revenue at his Boston business in 2024 by 30% without adding a single salesperson to the two already on staff.

Instead, he has been using an artificial-intelligence model loaded with company documents, sales materials and other information. Now, he can complete in just minutes work that used to take hours, such as writing marketing plans, email drafts and social-media posts. “It allows us to be lean, nimble and fast," said Viktorov.

Productivity in the U.S., as measured by how much the average worker gets done in an hour, has been on the rise. That matters because the faster that productivity grows, the faster the economy can grow as well. The success of the U.S.

economy, and why it has grown so much compared with other countries over the past century and more, has hinged on its productivity. Productivity—the total output of the economy divided by hours worked—rose 2% in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, according to the Labor Department. That marked the fifth quarter in a row with an increase of 2% or better.

In the five years before the pandemic, there were only two such quarters. The gains in part reflect massive changes in the U.S. economy since the onset of Covid-19.

Companies learned new ways of doing things and adopted new technologies, while an upheaval in the labor market moved workers into more productive jobs. Another big change in the American labor force—a massive influx of immigration—might also have played a role. Immigrants are often slotted into manual-intensive jobs, which could allow other workers to move up to more highly skilled jobs.