Unpleasant economic thought

Judging from the work i actually see during my day job, I believe that the potential productivity (labor-saving) gains from IT have been understated because:

Like prices, employment is sticky. For a number of reasons, people don't usually get canned because of productivity gains, particularly in the small enterprise service sector where they are more difficult to quantify and may not represent full positions. The gains may simply mean more idle time.


But once those positions are gone due to a downturn like the current one, employers have little reason to reinstate them.