Forestry and fishing show best labour productivity lift

Friday 25th March 2011

The forestry and fishing sector had the best growth in labour productivity between 2006 and 2009, while construction turned in the worst performance, new figures from Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) show.

Labour productivity in forestry and fishing changed at an average annual rate of 4.7% during the period, property services lifted 4.5%, finance and insurance was up 3.8 percent, and communication services lifted 3.3%.

Construction had an annual average decrease of 3.3%, the electricity, gas and water supply sector dropped 3.1% and personal and other community services dropped 2.1%.

For the whole of the measured sector, covering about 80 percent of the economy, labour productivity was unchanged from 2006 to 2009, SNZ said.

Between 1996 and 2009 it improved at an annual average rate of 1.5%, with communication services up 6.6%, finance and insurance up 5.1%, property services up 3.4% and agriculture up 3.3%. Cultural and recreational services fell 2.2% and accommodation, cafes and restaurants were down 0.5%.

With multifactor productivity - the ratio of output to total inputs - communication services had the best performance between 2006 and 2009, lifting at an average annual rate of 2.8%. Finance and insurance gained 1.8%, while agriculture gained 0.9%. Construction fell at an average annual rate of 4.8%, and manufacturing dropped 3.4%.

Overall, multifactor productivity fell at an average annual rate of 1.2% from 2006 to 2009, while lifting at an average annual rate of 0.7% between 1996 and 2009.

NZPA

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