US construction workers are 40% less productive than in 1970, economist finds
aakashgupta · x · 2026-11-07
Research by UChicago economist Chad Syverson and Austan Goolsbee shows construction is one of the only US industries where productivity has fallen since 1970 — today's workers get 40% less done despite an eightfold rise in equipment and capital spending. The piece ties this stagnation to physical labor: Danish studies found floor layers spend 41-65% of their workday on their knees and face 3.6x higher odds of knee arthritis by their 50s, a bottleneck robotics and AI are now circling.
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