Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Outlook It was a common refrain of the boom years: public sector productivity growth is scandalously weak. All that extra money for schools and hospitals from the previous government appearing to be producing minimal extra output. What a waste of taxpayers' money!
This was always a rather silly complaint. For how does one measure the output of a hospital? By the volume of patients treated? What if their experience of care was a Stafford-style nightmare? Yet, interestingly, official figures yesterday pointed out that public sector productivity has been growing since 2010. While private sector productivity has been falling, public sector efficiency has been on the up.
This is logical. Some 600,000 public sector workers have lost their jobs since 2009. Yet the schools stay open and the hospitals carry on treating patients. Productivity has to be rising. Still, will we now hear a round of applause for the most productive individuals in our economy: our public sector workers?
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments