European Central Bank: low-skilled mass immigration key to low productivity

[Menydh]

Trichet: the creation of jobs in Spain "is hard to believe" due to low labour productivity

Cadena COPE
January 17, 2008

The President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, has assured that creation of jobs in Spain is "hard to believe" since he considers that labour productivity is low.

Trichet has said that "it is not surprising that labour productivity is low" in Spain, considering that creation of jobs has come with the arrival of many low-skilled immigrants.

Furthermore, in an article of January's monthly bulletin published today, the European Central Bank assures that "since 1995 the mean rate of growth of labour productivity in the euro zone has been maintained at around 1.3 percent yearly, a level that represents a steeped slowdown in comparison to that of the 80s and 90s", and "at the same time, the U.S. economy enjoys a noticeable reactivation of its economy."

The European Bank explains that most of this transatlantic difference in the growth of labour productivity is due to the fact that "companies in the euro zone seem not to be able to exploit the benefits of the new technologies in all their extension."

To change this situation, the European Central Bank has recommended "to increase the flexibility of the economies of the euro zone through further structural reforms", since this is a condition to achieve a change in the recesion of productivity.


[source]

[Errigal]

Here is a recent article which discusses the European Central Bank's preference for cheap labour within the eurozone no matter what:

William PFAFF-The ECB: Sponsoring Inflation while Imposing Austerity - Columns - News

[Menydh]

I was talking to a young and skilled plumber the other day who was literally thrilled at the prospect of the forthcoming crisis in Spain, which is expected to follow the end of the construction boom. His argument was that the massive employment of foreign labout in construction through all these years had left a more than dubious quality in the newly built houses, with all kind of problems starting to surface now.

He works for an insurance company and at this moment his agenda is hectic.