New tech tools to close construction’s crippling productivity gap
New tech could help bring the construction sector — which has been persistently less productive than others — into the 21st century.
Why it matters: Sluggish productivity in construction raises costs and contributes to America’s severe housing crisis.
By the numbers: Labor productivity growth — how much output is produced per unit of labor input — in the global construction sector has averaged only 1% a year over the past two decades, compared to 2.8% for the world economy as a whole and 3.6% in manufacturing, according to a 2017 report by the McKinsey Global Institute.
What they’re saying: A visit to San Francisco — home to the nerve center of the U.S. tech industry and some of the country’s most expensive housing — puts the importance of productivity growth in perspective, says Maria Rioumine, CEO of the construction procurement platform Agora.
- “In a place that has so much productivity and so much innovation, how is it…
