Productivity

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National Accounts, Economic Statistics
Magnus B. Eriksen
+45 29 12 27 56

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Productivity 2023

The purpose of the statistics Productivity is to examine the change in production per unit of the resources involved and which contributes to the change. The simplest and most commonly used concept of productivity is labor productivity, which is used here. Labor productivity (LP) and the causes for the change in LP is calculated back to 1966. The statistics have been revised since the last publication. In this revision, the statistics have been revised back to 1966. The purpose of the revision is to incorporate new knowledge and new methods and to ensure uniform compilation methods for all countries. Read more at https://www.dst.dk/ext/national/HR2024_over_EN--pdf

Statistical presentation

Productivity is basically a measure of how efficiently you use your resources (labor, capital, etc.) when producing goods and services. In this statistic it is also calculated which resources contribute most to the change in productivity. Productivity change is distributed across industries for the various productivity components. The statistics are disseminated in News from Statistics Denmark and the StatBank.

Statistical processing

Labor productivity is defined as the real value of Gross value added (GVA) per hour worked. The calculations are based on figures from market activity from national accounts, i.e. the total economy excluding the sectors: General government (S.13) and NPISH (S.15). The sources used for calculating the productivity growth is fixed capital, Labor force education statistics and sector account figures for Gross value added and hours worked.

Relevance

The national accounts (including Productivity statistics) constitute core indicators of the analyses of economic growth. Users are primary researchers, economic departments and organizations.

The division of national accounts continuously evaluates feedback from our users.

Accuracy and reliability

The precision of the calculation of productivity growth is closely related to the uncertainty of the variables that are included in the calculation. I.e. how well, the value of an hour's work is reflected in the gross value added in fixed prices for the industry; the quality of the calculated hours and whether there are special conditions in the industry that make labor productivity less relevant, e.g. high capital intensity. For multiple industries, labor productivity growth should not stand alone in productivity analyzes. This applies, for example, to dwellings, public administration, education and health. Read more about this in kvalitetsvurderingen. (In Danish only).

Timeliness and punctuality

First preliminary version of Labor productivity (LP) for year t is published end of March in year t+1. The final version of LP for year t is published end of June in year t+3. First preliminary version of Productivity growth (Sources of LP) is published in February year t+2. The final version of Productivity growth (Sources of LP) is published in February year t+4. The productivity statistics are published according to schedule.

Comparability

This statistic is based on national accounts. Therefore this statistic is consistent with respect to national accounts and comparable over time. Moreover this statistic is comparable to other countries productivity figures if they are also based on ESA2010.

Accessibility and clarity

These statistics are published yearly in a Danish press release and in the StatBank under Productivity. See more information here.