Productivity, productivity, productivity....

[the snail]

Correct.

If new entrants to the labour market are more productive than the average, Productivity rises.

If new entrants to the labour market are less productive than the average Productivity falls.

Countries that have a high hurdle for immigration (Australia, Canada) see a positive effect on GDP.

The corollary is also true.

I'm not sure that follows at all. Australia has declining productivity comparted to similar countries, and the visa regime is seen as a handicap. Countries like the Uk and Japan with ageing populations will have a very hard time improving productivity without immigration. I think the real drivers of productivity are education/training, research and technology investment.

 

[stephec]

This is true of sectors of my industry.
The customers I serve work in close long-term stable partnership with their customers and supply large volumes of a relatively limited range of frozen products. Production is almost 24/7 and requires relatively few people to run them. As a result they can invest in high capacity lines and the latest technologies to improve efficiencies.
At the other end of the market, suppliers making chilled products for retailers face a very different scenario - often shorter-term/more cut-throat contracts, wider range of products to make requiring a lot of different line set-ups, chilled vs frozen (so need to make everything nearly every day). To do this they need multiple smaller volume lines and more people.
So one situation favours investment in production technology, the other investment in short-term/flexible workforce.

Chilled food factories are always full of agency staff.

There's a place I used to visit for work that had to produce ready meals on boxing day because of M+S's strict demands on use by dates.

 

[BoldonLad]

I at one time worked in the (UK) Shipbuilding Industry, long since defunct. Interestingly, one of the basket case Shipyards I worked at is now building (?) ferries for CALMAC, so, it would appear little has changed.

It is only my personal opinion, but, the reasons for failure were many and varied. However, the culprit which cropped up time and time again was (lack of) education, development and training of the workforce, and, by workforce, I don't mean only the "dirty hands" brigade.

It is perfectly possible to improve productivity in so called "none producing sectors", like the Civil Service and/or NHS. In the case of the NHS, I encounter a small example of waste every 56 days, when ordering Mrs Boldonlad's medication. I have explained to my GP how this could be achieved, using existing systems, but, zilch.

There does, also, appear to be a thick headed ability on the part of us Brits to fail to accept that we may be clever, but, so are some "Johnny foreigners". In my life time, we have seen for example:

the introduction of Japanese Motor Cycles, never catch on said the "old school", and, where are we now, where are BSA, Norton, etc etc

the same as above happened with cars, now, Nissan Sunderland is allegedly the most productive car factory in Europe, anyone remember Morris, Austin, etc etc

the above two scenarios are now being repeated, except with Chinese products

Finally, the drive for improved productivity is not a one off exercise, it is a constant process to refine, improve, innovate.