Labour productivity is here calculated as the ratio of value added volumes to number engaged. Labour productivity represents the amount of output per unit of input, output being here defined as value added while the input measure used is total employment.<sup>5</sup>
So, it measures value added per employed person. The statistical definition acknowledges that it would be better to use hours worked data at the industry level, but says such data are thus far not available in the OECD STAN database. The number of employed persons is however a good approximation for the total hours worked in an industry so that the labour productivity index is a feasible measure for understanding the productivity development in the information economy.
The labour productivity index increased in printing and publishing in the USA from 68.9 in 1980 to 137.0 in 2007, in post and telecommunications from 44.8 in 1977 to 158.8 in 2007, in computing services (including software engineering) from 105.5 in 1998 to 173.7 in 2007 (data source: OECD STAN). It decreased from 101.8 to 99.6 in other community, social, and personal services that include recreational, cultural and sporting activities, such as film production, sound recording, motion picture projection, production, and broadcasting of television and radio programmes, live theatre, concerts, art production and exhibition, entertainment parks, etc. (data source: OECD STAN). In the United Kingdom, the same services increased their labour productivity index from 66.7 in 1980 to 102.0 in 2003, post and telecommunications increased the index from 29.3 in 1980 to 109.7 in 2003 (data source: OECD STAN). In Germany, the labour productivity index increased in printing and publishing from 69.0 in 1970 to 100.9 in 2007, in post and telecommunications from 21.5 in 1970 to 129.1 in 2007, in computing services from 47.2 in 1970 to 95.5 in 2007, etc. (data source: OECD STAN). In community, social, and personal services, it decreased from 106.9 in 1970 to 90.3 in 2008 (data source: OECD STAN). In France, the labour productivity index increased in printing and publishing from 69.7 in 1970 to 125.1 in 2007, in post and telecommunications from 13.8 in 1970 to 168.4 in 2008, and in community, social, and personal services from 80.6 in 1970 to 101.9 in 2007 (data source: OECD STAN).
Such service data are somewhat hard to interpret because they include besides broadcasting, arts, and live entertainment also sanitation, sewage, and refuse disposal, activities of membership organisations, hairdressers, funeral services, washing and cleaning services, porters, shoeshiners, solariums, baths, etc. But overall they could be indicators that live entertainment and arts can have problems increasing labour productivity, whereas publishing, computing, and telecommunications seem to be doing better in this respect.
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5 http://stats.oecd.org/OECDStat\_Metadata/ShowMetadata.ashx?Dataset=STANINDICATORS&Coords=[VAR]. [IPTY]&ShowOnWeb=true&Lang=en