U.S. productivity soars compared with Europe

While the American worker’s stunning productivity gains have been well-documented for years, a new study finds that companies reap impressive financial benefits from those gains: Profit-per-worker has soared 156 percent on a pretax basis since 2001.

That compares with only 26 percent for European workers, according to “Key Trends in Human Capital: A Global Perspective,” a report issued by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Saratoga Institute. The survey collected data from more than 10,000 organizations in Europe and the United States.

In other findings:

• European companies invest nearly 36 percent more per worker ($867) than those in the United States ($559).
• Costs per hire are $2,928 in the United States and $2,460 in Europe.
• European companies realize $2.01 for every $1 invested in employee compensation, while U.S. organizations see $1.48.
• Each human resource employee supports 90 workers, in both Europe and in the United States.

Relocation

Agency growth insures need for new office

After 16 years in west Lawrence, Ron King is moving his American Family insurance agency closer to the heart of the community he serves.

The Ron King Agency Inc., which holds a consistent place among American Family’s top 50 agencies nationwide, opens Monday at 3010 Fourwheel Drive. The agency is moving this weekend from its longtime home at 3502 Westridge Drive, near Sixth Street and Kasold Drive.

King is expanding the office to accommodate growth for the agency, which now has 2,000 individual and family customers. King recently hired Yolanda Huggins, formerly of Connex International, to work in the office alongside King and three other licensed agents, with plans for adding a fourth agent in the new year.

King also has been named American Family’s district agent of the month for November, qualifying him for a conference in the Bahamas. King is a four-time winner of American Family’s Kansas Agent of the Year award.

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