Whereas United States economic productivity grew at an annua

[gauravtyagigmat]

Whereas United States economic productivity grew at
an annual rate of 3 percent from 1945 to 1965, it has
grown at an annual rate of only about 1 percent since
the early 1970’s. What might be preventing higher
productivity growth? Clearly, the manufacturing sector
of the economy cannot be blamed. Since 1980,
productivity improvements in manufacturing have
moved the United States from a position of acute
decline in manufacturing to one of world prominence.
Manufacturing, however, constitutes a relatively small
proportion of the economy. In 1992, goods-producing
businesses employed only 19.1 percent of American
workers, whereas service-producing businesses
employed 70 percent. Although the service sector has
grown since the late 1970’s, its productivity growth
has declined.
Several explanations have been offered for this decline
and for the discrepancy in productivity growth
between the manufacturing and service sectors. One is
that traditional measures fail to reflect service-sector
productivity growth because it has been concentrated
in improved quality of services. Yet traditional
measures of manufacturing productivity have shown
significant increases despite the under-measurement
of quality, whereas service productivity has continued
to stagnate. Others argue that since the 1970’s,
manufacturing workers, faced with strong foreign
competition, have learned to work more efficiently in
order to keep their jobs in the United States, but
service workers, who are typically under less global
competitive pressure, have not. However, the pressure
on manufacturing workers in the United States to work
more efficiently has generally been overstated, often
for political reasons. In fact, while some manufacturing
jobs have been lost due to foreign competition, many
more have been lost simply because of slow growth in
demand for manufactured goods.
Yet another explanation blames the federal budget
deficit: if it were lower, interest rates would be lower
too, thereby increasing investment in the development
of new technologies, which would spur productivity
growth in the service sector. There is, however, no
dearth of technological resources; rather, managers in
the service sector fail to take advantage of widely
available skills and machines. High productivity growth
levels attained by leading-edge service companies
indicate that service-sector managers who wisely
implement available technology and choose skillful
workers can significantly improve their companies’
productivity. The culprits for service-sector productivity
stagnation are the forces"”such as corporate takeovers
and unnecessary governmental regulation"”that
distract managers from the task of making optimal use
of available resources.


It can be inferred from the passage that which of the
following was true of the United States manufacturing
sector in the years immediately prior to 1980?
A. It was performing relatively poorly.
B. It was in a position of world prominence.
C. It was increasing its productivity at an annual rate
of 3 percent.
D. It was increasing its productivity at an annual rate
of 1 percent.
E. Its level of productivity was higher than afterward.

I marked E because i thought passage definately mentions that productivity improved after 1980.
At the same time A was also a good option but i thought mentions more explicitly about improvement after 1980 rather than mentioning about poor performance of manufacturing before 1980

[RonPurewal]

Read the question again:

It can be inferred from the passage that which of the
following was true of the United States manufacturing
sector in the years immediately prior to 1980?

^^ That.

So, this...

I marked E because i thought passage definately mentions that productivity improved after 1980.

... is irrelevant.

[RonPurewal]

At the same time A was also a good option but i thought mentions more explicitly about improvement after 1980 rather than mentioning about poor performance of manufacturing before 1980

According to the passage, the US existed in "a position of acute decline in manufacturing" before the changes that began in 1980. Quite explicit.

[gauravtyagigmat]

Read the question again:

It can be inferred from the passage that which of the
following was true of the United States manufacturing
sector in the years immediately prior to 1980?

^^ That.

So, this...

I marked E because i thought passage definately mentions that productivity improved after 1980.

... is irrelevant.

Thanks Ron for response
Oh great I missed that question is specialy asking about condition prior to 1980...
How and when i will overcome these silly mistakes under time constraint

[tim]

With lots of practice! :)