Quarterly productivity bulletin – December 2024

Reinvigorating productivity growth is a national priority

Labour productivity declined by 0.5% in the September quarter and by 0.8% over the year, the Productivity Commission’s (PC) latest quarterly productivity bulletin shows.

“The immense disruption from COVID-19 inflated a short-lived productivity ‘bubble’ which has since burst. Labour productivity is now back to where it was during the stagnant 2015 to 2019 period leading up to the pandemic,” said PC Deputy Chair Alex Robson.

“Over the medium to longer term, higher productivity growth also underpins fiscal sustainability.”

Labour productivity dropped in both the market and non-market (or government-dominated) sectors during both the quarter and the year.

“The data underscores the point that reinvigorating productivity is a national priority. Even small changes that make the economy more dynamic and efficient can deliver big economic dividends and add up to major improvements in real wages and living standards over time,” said Dr Robson.

“But it’s not all doom and gloom. Today’s economy is, in some ways, stronger than the pre-pandemic economy was. This is most evident in the jobs market, where Australia now has higher labour force participation and lower unemployment,” he said.

The PC’s latest bulletin also compares Australia’s recent productivity performance to that of the United States.

James Thiris, a Senior Research Economist at the PC, argues that the much discussed ‘great productivity divide’ between Australia and the US – where productivity growth is booming – is not as wide as it first appears.

Mr Thiris argues that this ‘divide’ is partly because Australia and the United States report different measures of headline labour productivity, and in addition must be seen in the context of the very different post-pandemic labour markets in the two countries and the different ways they supported workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Australia protected existing jobs and businesses during the pandemic, which reduced disruption but may have prevented some workers from moving to more productive jobs in a quickly changing economy,” said Dr Robson.

“The US supported workers with unemployment benefits, which led to higher unemployment but may have boosted productivity by allowing unproductive businesses to fail.”

The latest Quarterly productivity bulletin is available from: www.pc.gov.au/productivity-insights.

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Bulletin – December 2024

• Labour productivity
• Quarterly change in labour productivity
• Annual change in labour productivity
• Update from Alex Robson
• The great productivity divide
• References
• Copyright and publication detail

Appendix: Supporting data

• A primer on productivity
• Detailed productivity statistics
• Productivity data revisions