Labour productivity growth eases

New Zealand’s labour productivity rose 0.3 percent in the year ended March 2018, Stats NZ said today.

This is the second consecutive year labour productivity growth has eased.

Labour productivity measures the quantity of goods and services (output) produced per hour of labour.

“Labour productivity growth slowed for the second year in a row due to a combination of an above-average increase to labour inputs and softening output growth,” national accounts senior manager Gary Dunnet said.

Labour productivity is one of the three major productivity measures produced – the other two are multifactor productivity and capital productivity. Both multifactor and capital productivity also rose 0.3 percent in the year ended March 2018. Multifactor productivity captures the effects of unobserved inputs such as technological progress, efficiency gains, and economies of scale.

Labour productivity growth was strongest in the primary industries, which were up 2.7 percent in the year ended March 2018, while service industries were up 0.5 percent for the year. Labour productivity for goods-producing industries fell 0.9 percent over the year.

In theory, productivity measures should cover all industries in the economy. The industry coverage of these statistics includes only the ‘measured sector’ (ie mainly market industries). However, this still covers about 80 percent of industry’s contribution to New Zealand’s gross domestic product.

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