TPT November 2007

From the AmericaS

› Auto production in Mexico picked up in the April-June period after a dismal first quarter, but by late summer output still trailed last year’s. According to the Mexican Automotive Industry Assn, in the first seven months of 2007 Mexico produced 1.1 million vehicles, down 1.4 per cent compared with the same period of 2006. Exports of cars and trucks were flat. Vehicle production in Mexico is dominated by the Big Three – Ford Motor Co, General Motors Corp, and DaimlerChrysler – which export most of their Mexican-produced cars and trucks to US showrooms. Analysts say that Detroit’s shrinking share of its home market is crimping one of Mexico’s most important industries.

draws on figures for 2006 or, for some countries, the most recent data available. The ILO said the US also exceeds Japan, Switzerland, and all 27 nations in the European Union in the amount of wealth created in an hour of work. Norway, not a member of the EU, generates the most output per working hour: $37.99. The US is second at $35.63, and France is in third place at about a half-dollar behind the US. In 2006, the report said, the US employee put in an average 1,804 hours of work. That compared with 1,407.1 hours for the Norwegian worker and 1,564.4 for the French. There was an astonishing differential between these totals and the hours worked in Asia. In 2006, workers in seven economies – South Korea, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, and Thailand – put in an average of over 2,200 hours, but at lower productivity rates. Even so, productivity in China and other East Asian countries has doubled in the past decade and is accelerating faster than anywhere else, the ILO report said.

Work force

The UN says American workers are the most productive anywhere

According to a report released 3 September by a United Nations agency, the US leads the world in labour productivity. The International Labor Organization (ILO) said that US workers produce $63,885 of wealth per year each, more than their counterparts in every other country. Ireland is second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg at $55,641, Belgium at $55,235, and France at $54,609. A country’s productivity is determined by dividing its gross domestic product by the official number of employed persons. The UN report

Immigration

The X factor in the American presidential campaign: disaffected US citizens of Hispanic background The immigration bill that went down to defeat in the US Senate in June was a poor thing at best: cobbled together to placate

104

N ovember /D ecember 2007