Publication - Statistics

Labour productivity statistics: 2018 Q3

Published: 6 February 2019
Directorate: Chief Economist Directorate
Topic: Economy

This publication includes estimates of labour productivity for Scotland’s onshore economy up to the

third quarter of 2018 (July-September).

Labour Productivity measures the amount of economic output produced, on average, per unit of labour input and is an important indicator of economic performance within a country. More specifically, the statistics estimate output (Gross Value Added, GVA) produced per job filled and hour worked, and are presented in both real terms (inflation adjusted) and nominal terms (current prices).

Headline Results

On a rolling annual basis to 2018 Quarter 3, comparing the most recent four quarters to the previous four quarters, labour productivity in Scotland, as measured by output per hour worked, increased by 4.0% in real terms.
On a quarterly basis, trend growth in output per hour, which strips out underlying volatility, was flat (0.0%) between the second and third quarter of 2018, following an increase of 0.2% in the previous quarter.

What's included in this release?

This publication contains a brief summary of the key results from the latest productivity statistics, focussing in on the headline measure of output per hour growth.

The key results are presented in real terms, where the effect of price changes has been removed to allow for meaningful comparisons over time.

Additionally, a topical piece on international comparisons is presented this quarter which focuses on Scotland’s level of nominal (current price) productivity relative to the UK and other OECD member states.

Correction 8 Feb 2019: the annual values for current price GVA in the published tables were found to contain errors. This did not reflect errors in the underlying dataset, the quarterly data in the tables, the calculation of productivity statistics or in the text or charts of the publication. The tables have now been corrected. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.