READ THE DATA

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 31, 1992                   TAG: 9201310453
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
READ THE DATA
YOSHIO SAKURAUCHI, speaker of Japan's House of Representatives, says he didn't mean it when he called U.S. workers lazy and said a third of them are illiterate. He takes it back.
Well he should. Not that functional illiteracy isn't a huge problem in America. Tens of millions of us can't read well enough to comprehend want ads, fill out job applications or follow simple written directions.
But our trade deficit's not due chiefly to that - or to laziness. In fact, American workers are among the most productive in the world. Even compared with Japan's.
The Economist of London says a study using figures from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development "shows that in the mid-1980s America produced almost twice as much for every man-hour worked, across the entire economy, as Japan. . . . [E]ven in manufacturing, America's output per man-hour was roughly the same as Japan's; it was 50 percent higher than Germany's."
American productivity shot up in the 1980s: It grew an average of 3.4 percent a year, surpassing Japan and every other OECD member except Britain and France. And while many U.S. chief executives are overpaid, American workers are not. "In 1990," reports The Economist, "average labor costs (including non-wage costs) per hour in manufacturing were $15 in America, compared with $23 in western Germany and $16 in Japan. . . . Real wages per hour have fallen by 13 percent in America since 1973, compared with increases of 30 percent or more in Japan and western Germany."
The trade deficit's actually shrinking, and in technology, the United States remains highly innovative. Our capital spending lags. And, of course, better education and training are needed. But the main problem with U.S. competitiveness isn't the workers. It's the managers. If companies and governments make the right moves at home, we'll be able to compete as the world economy recovers.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB