Employees work harder in times of recession

Worker output has been found to increase during times of economic downturn, while employers and firms manage to do “more with less”, according to a new study from the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business and Stanford University.

The study also discovered a direct correlation between the efforts of workers and local unemployment rates, suggesting that when unemployment is high, workers respond to the reduced likelihood of obtaining an alternative job.

Data was collected from several branches of a national firm, making it possible to examine the effects of various labor market conditions.