The productivity gains in American society have been high for the last 15 years. Often at the level of 5% per year. ‘Productivity’ means growth of GDP over and above capital and labor inputs.
So why hasn't that productivity gain been beneficial to employment?
First and most importantly I think that a major part of the productivity gains have come from intangibles such as Starbucks espresso and similar stimulants, people working harder and the incredible connectivity in every square foot of one's daily life with smart phones. So people work more efficiently, and most importantly we have the power of the Google search engine for getting information.
These types of productivity gain result in significant increases in output without creating a significant number of new businesses or new jobs. Workers work harder and more efficiently in existing jobs.
Second I think that the barriers that have been growing in our society for decades are having an increased effect in the past half decade.
*The financial crisis wiped out a great deal of assets for ordinary people and ordinary investors. This reduced initiative in business expansion.
*We had a minimum wage that acted as a barrier for entry level jobs that had not been a problem when the economic growth was rampant.
*We have high college debt and the associated milieu of anger amoung the new job entrants.
*We have an age distribution that leaves older workers in charge of management and baby boomers dropping out of the workforce early.
*We have a large uneducated unmotivated black population and no relevant jobs for them.
*Lastly we have a hostile government attitude toward commerce with government employees who are highly paid and very intrusive on the economy.
That is enough to make sure that productivity gains do not get translated into expansion of employment.