Productivity Statistics: 1978-2024

Productivity is a measure of how efficiently capital and labour are used within the economy to produce outputs of goods and services. A higher productivity rate means a nation can either produce a higher level of goods and services with the same level of inputs or produce the same level of goods and services with a lower level of inputs. Labour productivity primarily takes the hours people work into account, whereas capital productivity only takes capital inputs, such as land, machinery, and equipment, into account.

Key facts

Key aggregates for the measured sector

The measured sector represents the industries where we can measure output independently from input, allowing us to measure productivity. It includes most of the economy but excludes some industries, mainly non-market industries such as public administration and safety; education and training; health care and social assistance; and arts, recreation, and other services.

For the measured sector, in the year ended March 2024:

• labour productivity fell 0.7 percent
• multifactor productivity fell 0.9 percent
• capital productivity fell 1.3 percent.

Inputs rose at a higher rate compared with outputs in the year ended March 2024, resulting in decreases in both labour and multifactor productivity.

Labour productivity by industry

In the year ended March 2024, the productivity of New Zealand workers in the measured sector increased 37.6 percent, compared with 1996 when the series began.

Compared with 1996, in 2024:

• primary industries workers produced 72 percent more goods and services per hour
• measured-sector service industries workers produced 46.2 percent more goods and services per hour
• goods-producing industries workers produced 14.5 percent more goods and services per hour.

Over the year ended March 2024, labour productivity in both measured-sector service and goods-producing industries fell, down 1.3 percent and 1.8 percent respectively. Labour productivity in primary industries rose 9.8 percent over the same period.

The graph below shows the changes in labour productivity and multifactor productivity growth rates across the different measured-sector industries.

Productivity growth between industries varied for the year ended March 2024, with rises in some industries offset by falls in others. This underlies differences between industries and changes in unobserved factors between years. Some of these industries are highlighted below.

Select industry summaries for the year ended March 2024

Downward drivers

For accommodation and food services:

• output fell 3.8 percent
• labour inputs rose 5.8 percent
• labour productivity fell 9.1 percent.

For wholesale trade:

• output fell 3.6 percent
• labour inputs rose 2.3 percent
• labour productivity fell 5.7 percent.

For transport, postal, and warehousing:

• output fell 1.3 percent
• labour inputs rose 4.5 percent
• labour productivity fell 5.6 percent.

For manufacturing:

• output fell 3.5 percent
• labour inputs fell 0.7 percent
• labour productivity fell 2.8 percent.

The fall in labour productivity for accommodation and food services; wholesale trade; and transport, postal, and warehousing were driven by rises in labour inputs without corresponding increases in outputs. Although labour inputs declined for the manufacturing industry, output decreased, so labour productivity fell.

Upward drivers

For mining:

• output rose 2.5 percent
• labour inputs fell 9.2 percent
• labour productivity rose 12.9 percent.

For agriculture, forestry, and fishing:

• output rose 7.4 percent
• labour inputs fell 2.2 percent
• labour productivity rose 9.8 percent.

More data

Use Infoshare to access annual productivity data:

Subject category: Economic indicators
Group: Productivity statistics – PRD

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Definitions and metadata

Productivity measures statistics – DataInfo+ provides general methodology used to produce these statistics.

Productivity measures statistics – concepts – DataInfo+ provides the definitions of terms used in this release.

Productivity measures statistics 1978-2024 – DataInfo+ provides full details of our data updates and revisions.

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ISSN 1178-0630

Next release

Productivity statistics: 1978-2025 will be released in April 2026.