Erik Brynjolfsson looks on the bright side:

The past decade has been terrible in terms of job growth and median wage growth, and sadly that was true even before it culminated in the worst recession since the 1930s.
But not all the news is bad. Although it’s not much discussed, this has actually been the best decade since the 1960s for productivity growth. Last year, labor productivity grew by over 4% and it has averaged over 2.5% in the preceding 10 years.

And then he delves into the clouds darkening this picture.

Some believe that rapid productivity growth necessarily means decreased employment levels. I don’t think that’s right. But of course they’re not unrelated, particularly in an environment in which the surplus countries refuse to free their citizens to increase consumption.