Labour Productivity Statistics 1998-2015

The release of annual Labour Productivity Statistics for the period 1998-2014 was announced today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician. Key figures in the latest release are:

• In 2015, Scottish labour productivity, as measured by output per hour worked, increased by 3.5% in real terms (inflation adjusted), following growth of 0.9% in 2014. Output per hour worked is now 9.4% higher in real terms than in 2007, prior to the recession.
• Output per hour worked in nominal terms (not adjusted for inflation) was estimated to be 99.9% of the average UK value (excluding extra regio output). The gap between labour productivity levels in Scotland and the UK average has narrowed since the onset on the recession from around 5 or 6 percentage points prior to 2008 to less than 1 percentage point since 2013.
• Labour productivity, as measured by output per job, increased by 2.1% in real terms during 2015 and is now 6.2% higher than in 2007. Output per job in nominal terms was 97.8% of the average UK value (excluding extra regio output).
• The differences in growth rates between output per hour worked and output per job indicate changes in average working patterns. For example, in 2015 the number of ‘productivity jobs’ in Scotland increased by 0.1% while total ‘productivity hours’ decreased by 1.3%, indicating a decrease in the average number of hours worked per job.
• This release contains new experimental estimates of labour productivity for broad industry groups. Further information is contained in an annex to the main publication.

 Background

The Labour Productivity statistics.

Labour productivity measures the average amount of economic output that is produced by a unit of labour input (measured in this release in terms of jobs and hours worked).

Labour productivity is a derived statistic. This means that it is not directly estimated, but is based on separate estimates for economic output and labour input. Labour input measures in this release are consistent with NUTS1 results for countries and regions published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Output (GVA) statistics are consistent with Scottish Government GDP and Quarterly National Accounts statistics.

Further information on Scottish economic statistics.

The figures released today were produced in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. More information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland.