Impact of Sectoral Structure on the Dynamics of Labor Productivity in the US Economy

The importance of labor productivity growth increases in the context of economic regionalization, which requires an economy-wide restructuring. In the United States of America, which continues its policy of reindustrial development, protectionism, and the suppression of competing countries by all means, the role of the structural factor in the dynamics of labor productivity is not uniform. The paper presents a theoretical analysis and methodological possibility of calculating the relationship between such economic categories and processes as labor productivity and its decline in the US economy, on the one hand, and structural changes in the American economy, on the other hand. Based on the use of the index method with the conversion of material resources into labor costs, an attempt was made to empirically identify the different impacts of specific industries (sectors) of the US economy on changes in labor productivity. The chronological period for calculating the system of necessary indices takes into account 2005 as the base year used for comparison with 2022. The results obtained indicate the beginning of a “reindustrial turn” in the US economy, which created the basis for the gradual recovery of the lost growth rates of labor productivity, together with the sector of information and communication services. It is noted that the movement of workers with relatively low qualifications from the manufacturing sectors of the American economy to the service sector, along with an increase in working hours, contributes to a decrease in labor productivity in a number of service industries. An increase in the role of the structural factor in the dynamics of labor productivity in those industries that most actively respond to the possibility of reducing labor costs in the context of growing technologization of economic activity is revealed. The conclusion is made about the information-industrial orientation of the structural changes observed in the United States over the period under study, which provides for a structural transformation of the labor market in the direction of increasing the efficiency of labor costs per unit of working time.