Kilm 18. Labour productivity and unit labour costs indicator

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KILM 18. Labour productivity and unit labour costs

Introduction

This chapter presents information on labour productivity for the aggregate economy (table 18a), manufacturing (table 18b), transport and communication (table 18c), and wholesale and retail trade, including hotels and restaurants (table 18d). Labour productivity is defined as output - measured by gross domestic product (GDP) - per unit of labour input. For a substantial number of economies, the productivity measures for the total economy and manufacturing are complemented with measures of unit labour cost, i.e. labour cost per unit of output. In addition, this edition of KILM provides, for the first time, estimates of productivity in agriculture, forestry and fisheries (table 18e).

The chapter provides estimates of growth rates of labour productivity and unit labour cost, as well as of levels expressed in US dollars. All estimates are made according to the national accounts conventions to ensure that labour productivity for individual sectors and for the total economy can be compared, thus providing an indication of the contribution of each sector to overall economic performance. Hence, the selection of economies is based on the availability of consistent series of output in US dollars and labour input. There are significant limitations in the availability of reliable data for these indicators, particularly when international comparability is the main criterion. In particular, the estimates for the two service industries and the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector are of an experimental nature, largely because of the difficulty in obtaining adequate measures for each economy to convert services GDP to US dollars.

The productivity indicator for the aggregate economy covers 44 economies within the developed (industrialized) grouping, transition economies, Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean regions (table 18a). Together, these economies represent more than half of the world population and more than two-thirds of world output. For some economies (mostly in Europe and North America, with some in Asia and South America), separate measures are provided for manufacturing (table 18b, 20 economies), transport and communication (table 18c, 18 economies) and trade (table 18d, 15 economies). Unit labour cost estimates for the aggregate economy and for manufacturing are provided for a somewhat smaller group of economies.

Trends

Figure 18a. Labour productivity growth rates, 1980-2001

		Total economy		Manufacturing		Transport and communications	Wholesale and retail trade, including hotels and restaurants	Agriculture, forestry and fisheries
		GDP per person employed, 1980-2001	GDP per hour worked, 1980-2001	GDP per person employed, 1980-2001	GDP per hour worked, 1980-2001	GDP per person employed, 1980-2000
Major Europe
	Austria	1.3¹	2.0¹	...	...	...	...	4.6
	Belgium	1.5¹	2.0¹	3.6	3.5	2.7	...	4.3
	Denmark	1.5¹	1.8¹	...	...	...	...	6.3
	Finland	2.3¹	2.7¹	5.3	5.6	3.7	2.2	4.2
	France	1.4¹	2.0¹	3.2	3.9	3.5 a	1.4 b	5.1
	Germany, Federal Republic of (Western)	1.7¹	2.6¹	2.4	3.1	3.4	0.9	...
	Germany	2.0²	1.8²	...	...	...	...	5.8
	Greece	1.7¹	1.8¹	...	...	...	...	2.2
	Ireland	3.2¹	4.0¹	...	...	...	...	4.5
	Italy	1.3¹	1.6¹	...	...	...	...	5.4
	Netherlands	0.6¹	1.4¹	2.7	3.4	2.9	1.2	3.2
	Norway	2.0¹	2.6¹	...	...	...	...	4.3
	Portugal	1.6¹	2.1¹	...	...	...	...	1.1
	Spain	1.2¹	1.5¹	2.1	2.5	...	...	5.7
	Sweden	1.8¹	1.6¹	4.6	3.9	3.4	2.6	5.0
	Switzerland	0.3¹	1.1¹	...	...	...	...	0.1
	Turkey	2.6¹	2.7¹	...	...	...	...	2.0
	United Kingdom	1.8¹	2.0¹	3.7	3.8	4.0 b	1.9	3.4

Major non-Europe
	Australia	1.5¹	1.7¹	1.7	1.4	4.2	0.8 b	2.9
	Canada	1.2¹	1.2¹	2.3	2.1	2.3	1.0	2.5
	Japan	1.7¹	2.2¹	2.9	3.3	2.1	2.4	1.9
	New Zealand	0.3¹	0.7³	...	...	...	...	3.2
	United States	1.6¹	1.4¹	3.6	3.4	2.6	2.7	4.1

Transition Economies
	Albania	...	...	...	...	...	...	0.8
	Belarus	...	...	...	...	...	...	-0.7⁴
	Bulgaria	1.1	...	...	...	...	...	1.4
	Czech Republic	1.5²	1.8²	3.0⁵	...	2.6⁶	...	15.9⁶
	Hungary	1.9²	2.3	...	...	...	...	6.6
	Kazakhstan	...	...	...	...	...	...	-7.4⁶
	Kyrgystan	...	...	...	...	...	...	-1.9⁴
	Latvia	...	...	...	...	...	...	-1.3⁶
	Lithuania	...	...	...	...	...	...	3.7⁷
	Poland	3.0¹	4.6⁸	...	...	...	...	3.8⁶
	Russian Federation	-1.6²	...	...	...	...	...	-1.9⁷
	Slovakia	3.4²	4.0⁹	...	...	...	...	6.4¹⁰
	Slovenia	3.2⁵	...	...	...	...	...	2.6⁷
	Tajikistan	...	...	...	...	...	...	-7.6⁶
	Turkmenistan	...	...	...	...	...	...	-5.1⁶
	Ukraine	...	...	...	...	...	...	-5.4⁶
	Uzbekistan	...	...	...	...	...	...	-0.4⁶

Asia and the Pacific
	Bangladesh	1.5	...	...	...	...	...	1.4
	Cambodia	...	...	...	...	...	...	0.7⁴
	China	5.2	...	6.7⁵	...	...	...	4.1
	Hong Kong, China	3.3	3.5	...	...	...	...	...
	India	3.2	...	4.3	...	3.5	...	1.6
	Indonesia	1.8	...	3.2	...	0.0	1.4	1.2
	Korea, Republic of	4.9¹	5.0¹	7.5	8.0	4.6	3.5	6.5
	Malaysia	2.8	...	...	...	...	...	2.3
	Myanamar	2.2¹¹	...	...	...	...	...	2.1
	Nepal	...	...	...	...	...	...	2.2
	Pakistan	3.0	...	...	...	...	...	2.7
	Phillipines	-0.6	...	...	...	...	...	1.0
	Singapore	3.7	3.8	...	...	...	...	0.3
	Sri Lanka	2.2	...	...	...	...	...	1.3
	Taiwan, China	4.3	5.2	4.9	5.7	6.4	4.9	...
	Thailand	3.9	...	...	...	...	...	3.3
	Viet Nam	...	...	...	...	...	...	1.5¹²

Latin America and the Caribbean
	Argentina	-0.2	-0.1	...	...	...	...	2.1
	Bolivia	...	...	...	...	...	...	1.0⁴
	Brazil	-0.2	0.2	0.8	...	1.9	-3.7	3.6
	Chile	1.9	1.8	...	...	...	...	2.9
	Colombia	0.7	1.0	...	...	...	...	2.3
	Costa Rica	...	...	...	...	...	...	2.1
	Cuba	...	...	...	...	...	...	-2.6⁴
	Dominican Republic	...	...	...	...	...	...	-0.8
	Ecuador	...	...	...	...	...	...	1.6
	El Salvador	...	...	...	...	...	...	-0.3
	Guatemala	...	...	...	...	...	...	-0.1
	Haiti	...	...	...	...	...	...	-1.9
	Honduras	...	...	...	...	...	...	1.0
	Mexico	0.1¹	0.0¹	0.6	...	1.1	-0.8	2.6
	Nicaragua	...	...	...	...	...	...	-0.3
	Panama	...	...	...	...	...	...	1.8
	Paraguay	...	...	...	...	...	...	1.2
	Peru	-1.5	...	...	...	...	...	2.2
	Uruguay	...	...	...	...	...	...	2.3
	Venezuela	-1.3	-1.2	...	...	...	...	0.0

Sub-Saharan Africa
	Benin	...	...	...	...	...	...	3.3
	Burundi	...	...	...	...	...	...	-0.6
	Cameroon	...	...	...	...	...	...	2.2
	Chad	...	...	...	...	...	...	1.1
	Congo, Democratic Republic of	-5.8	...	...	...