The 2.2 percent rise in labor productivity follows flat labor productivity in the year ended March 2021. These movements should be considered in the context of the different COVID-19 prevention measures that affected both years ended March 2021 and March 2022 respectively.
"The rise in labor productivity reflects output increasing at a greater rate than labor inputs over the March 2022 year," national accounts industry and production senior manager Ruvani Ratnayake said.
Labor productivity measures the quantity of goods and services (output) produced per hour of labor.
A rise was also seen in multifactor productivity, which rose 1.2 percent. Multifactor productivity captures the effects of unobserved inputs such as technological progress, efficiency gains, and economies of scale, Ratnayake said.
The coverage of these statistics only includes the measured sector, which is mainly market-sector industries. This covers approximately three-quarters of New Zealand's economy, he said, adding predominantly non-market service industries like education and healthcare are not included within the measured sector.
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