Measuring Productivity What we produce and the wages it costs

ONS International Comparisons of Productivity are based on two measures: GDP per worker and GDP per hour worked figures for the USA, France, Germany and Japan. The index is calculated in terms of UK=100.

These figures were formerly produced by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), but responsibility for these data was handed over to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in October 2001.The investigation into data sources and methodology that followed the handover highlighted a number of improvements to the system that have since been made.

It was decided that, following this investigation, the OECD’s Employment Outlook was the most appropriate source for hours worked numbers, due to its published nature and their open commitment to improving the quality of the figures. However, the source does contain a disclaimer that at present the source is not totally reliable for cross country comparisons. As a result of this the ONS figures on GDP per hour worked are marked EXPERIMENTAL, and will remain so until the ONS is satisfied that the OECD have improved the comparability of the figures sufficiently.

Since the Census revisions to population estimates, employment and hours worked as measured by the UK LFS have been revised. However, the OECD sources are yet to take account of this adjustment. An adjustment has been made to the OECD series to take account of this.

It is also important to note that due to the limitations of international data sources, these comparisons are not wholly compatible with the domestic productivity data produced by the ONS which is on a GVA per job basis rather than GDP per worker.