Justin Merriman/Bloomberg/Getty Images
A worker assembles a product at the Intervala manufacturing facility in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, US, on Tuesday, January 30, 2024.
Washington, DC
CNN
—
Americans are on the verge of living through a historic economic event: inflation fully returning to normal — after a series of punishing interest rate hikes — without a recession. It’s a scenario that analysts refer to as a “soft landing.”
The substantial progress seen so far may be due to a recent burst of productivity growth.
Last year’s strong US productivity meant that workers raked in strong wage gains without employers having to pass on the buck to consumers, at least to a large degree, since they were producing enough in various industries and services to cover for those higher labor costs.
In economics, the concept of productivity is essentially what the word itself means in everyday speak. If productivity is strong, that means the US economy is doing more with less, or being more productive. Since…
