ILO Supports South Africa's drive for better productivity measurement and collaboration

South Africa has for long monitored productivity trends, publishing a national productivity report on a yearly basis under the lead of Productivity South Africa, making use of official data from Statistics SA, the Reserve Bank and the Department of Labour. Building on this basis, Productivity SA has partnered with the ILO Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work Programme to further enhance its monitoring of productivity in the South African economy, aligning with international standards and best practices.

Since productivity indicators need to bring together multiple strands of data on the labour force, capital investment, and GDP, this partnership closely involves other key stakeholders. In July 2024, a technical workshop was convened as part of the process to improve on productivity measurements and related capacities in South Africa, with senior experts from Productivity SA, STATS SA, Department of Employment and Labour, the South African Reserve Bank, National Treasury, and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).

Following prior work on appraising the underlying statistics, the workshop exposed technical experts to global methods and standards for labour and multifactor productivity measurement. It focused on ways to achieve a more detailed understanding of productivity at aggregate and sectoral levels in the specific landscape of South Africa. The workshop also highlighted the need for agile collaboration across departments. Three communities of practice (COPs) were established to conduct further technical work and enhance expertise on Quality Adjusted Labour Inputs (QALI), Labour Share of National Income, and the Measurement of Capital Services.

The results of this work will augment South Africa’s next national productivity report, scheduled for release in November 2024, and its future editions. This in turn is expected to shed new light for evidence-based policymaking, including in the areas of industrial/sectoral and employment and wage policies and social dialogue, thus contributing to the broader goal of advancing productivity and decent work in South Africa.

Productivity Ecosystem for Decent Work is a global programme of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), funded by the Governments of Switzerland and Norway. In South Africa, it aims to address constraints to productivity growth and promote decent work, including in the leather and footwear sector.