Whole economy productivity and unit wage costs, Annual growth
Productivity across the whole economy, measured by output per worker, decreased by 3.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2009 compared with the same quarter a year ago. This is up from a fall of 3.5 per cent in the previous quarter. The negative growth is due to a continuing decline in whole economy output.
On a quarterly basis, productivity fell by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, down from a growth of 0.3 per cent in the previous quarter.
The alternative measure of productivity - output per hour worked - showed that hourly productivity across the whole economy fell by 1.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2009 compared with the same quarter a year ago, up from a fall of 3.2 per cent in the previous quarter.
In the third quarter of 2009, manufacturing productivity, on an output per job basis was 2.4 per cent lower than the same quarter of 2008, up from a fall of 4.7 per cent in the previous quarter. The continuing negative growth rate is due to a further decline in manufacturing output.
On a quarterly basis, manufacturing productivity increased by 1.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2009, compared with the previous quarter, down from an increase of 2.6 per cent in the previous quarter.
Unit wage costs across the whole economy in the third quarter of 2009 were 4.1 per cent higher than the same quarter a year earlier, down from an increase of 5.1 per cent in the previous quarter. This growth is due to the continuing decline in the growth of output per worker.
Overall manufacturing unit wage costs in the third quarter of 2009 grew by 4.0 per cent compared with the same quarter a year earlier, down from 6.3 per cent growth in the previous quarter.