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Labour productivity measures for the non-production industries
New experimental productivity data; a discussion of the suitability of industry output series relating to the non-production section of the economy for the estimation of productivity changes; future improvements.
Until now, ONS has not published productivity estimates for the services industries because of known quality issues with the data. However, a range of improvements are now being made to the output measures and these provide an opportunity for ONS to re-assess the potential for extending productivity estimates to the services industries.
For each industry section outside the production section, this article examines the case for producing productivity measures. It concludes that quarterly measures should be produced for sections G/H (Distribution, Hotels and Catering combined) and for G-P (Services combined) as well as annual measures for sections A/B (Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery combined). In addition the publication of a measure for the construction industry cannot be defended on quality issues and therefore has been withdrawn.
Consideration is given to the way in which future improvements to sources can be expected to add to the range and quality of industry productivity estimates in the longer term. This article presents the new experimental productivity data, which will appear quarterly on the experimental area part of the National Statistics web site.
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