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Decoupling of wages from productivity

a meek attempt to see for myself and also get my hands dirty

Real Income Trends

Source: Eurostat

The real income data comes from Eurostat's harmonized statistics, with 2010 as the base year (index=100). The values are adjusted for inflation, allowing for meaningful comparisons across time. A value of 101 means real income is 1% higher than in 2010, while 99 means it's 1% lower.

Labor Productivity Growth by Time Period

Source: ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics)

Note: Values show average annual growth rates for each time period

Color coding: Blue = Long-term (1995+), Green = Medium-term (2000+), Yellow = Recent (2009+)

Labor Productivity Methodology

The productivity data comes from ISTAT's "Tavole misure di produttività" dataset, specifically Table 2 ("Tavola 2 - Produttività del lavoro nei principali paesi europei"). The data is organized into three categories to show how productivity growth varies across different time horizons:

  • Long-term growth: Periods starting from 1995
  • Medium-term growth: Periods starting from 2000
  • Recent growth: Periods starting from 2009 or later

Each bar represents the average annual growth rate for that specific time period. Positive values indicate increased efficiency in the Italian economy, while negative values suggest declining productivity.

I feel bottlenecked…. how do I show data for overlapping time periods rather than a traditional time series?? And how do I relate these discrete productivity growth rate periods with the continuous real income?

Combined View: Real Income and Productivity Growth

This visualization attempts to show the relationship between real income levels and productivity growth rates:

  • The solid pink line shows the real income index (left axis)
  • The colored bands show different productivity growth periods (right axis)
  • The overlapping bands illustrate how different time periods show different growth rates

First attempt: A dual-axis visualization showing:

  • Real income as a continuous line (left axis)
  • Productivity growth periods as overlapping bands (right axis)

Second attempt: A timeline visualization showing:

  • Real income as a continuous line
  • Productivity growth periods as colored background regions
  • Growth rates annotated within their respective time periods