Labour productivity statistics: 2023

An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

Key Results

• In 2023, productivity measured as output per hour worked is provisionally estimated to have fallen by 1.1% compared to 2022, after growing by 4.6% in the previous year.

• The fall in annual productivity of 1.1% can be broken down into growth of 0.1% in gross value added (GVA) which was offset by a 1.3% increase in total hours worked. The estimate for hours worked in the economy has now recovered to above the pre-pandemic level for the first time.

• Output per hour worked in 2023 is 1.7% above the pre-pandemic level of 2019. This closely tracks the equivalent cumulative GVA growth of 1.8% over this period and is only partly offset by a 0.1% increase in hours worked.

• The alternative measure of labour productivity is annual output per job. This increased by 0.1% between 2022 and 2023, and is 1.4% higher than in 2019.

• Over the longer term since the financial crisis, between 2008 and 2023, productivity in Scotland has increased by an average of 1.0% per year. This compares to an average annual growth of 0.4% for the UK as a whole, and 0.8% per year for the EU as a whole.

Full publication and data

The full publication and downloadable data are available on the data.gov.scot website.

 

About these statistics

Labour productivity measures the amount of economic output, defined as gross value added (GVA) that is produced, on average, by each unit of labour input, and is an important indicator of economic performance.

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

The key results are presented in real terms, i.e. where the effect of price changes has been removed to allow for meaningful comparisons over time. Estimates are for Scotland’s onshore economy.