In the sorcerer's apprentice, a fledgling magi-cian enchants a broom to carry his water for him. Unfortunately, he hasn't learned how to make the broom stop, and the flood nearly sweeps him out into the street. That, in a nutshell, is what the U.S. economy feels like these days. During the 1980s and 1990s, we wanted more productivity growth, we prayed for more productivity growth―and now we're getting more than we ever expected. Since the start of the recession in March, 2001, output per hour has risen at an astounding 4.6% annual rate. That's far ahead of the 1.8% productivity growth of the previous recession and recovery of the early 1990s. These productivity gains have been carrying jobs away―but unlike the magician's broom, they have also generated real benefits for Americans. By BusinessWeek's calculation, the rapid growth in productivity over the past three years has added an additional $220 billion to the nation's gross domestic product, compared with what GDP would have been if productivi- ty growth had followed the slower pace of the previous business cycle.
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