WIREDGOV

More powers needed to capitalise on positive trend.

The latest official statistics released yesterday show that productivity in Scotland – output per hour worked, a measure of how much output the economy produces in each working hour – has grown by 4% since 2007.

The 4% growth is in contrast to the UK, which did not see any growth over the same period. The result is that Scottish productivity has caught up significantly with UK levels. Scottish productivity has increased from 92% of the UK average output per hour in 2007 to 98% of the UK average in 2013.

The average number of hours worked per job also increased in 2013 for the first time since 2007, to 30.5 hours from 30 hours in 2012.

Increases in Scottish productivity have, however, slowed since 2010 highlighting the need for further economic powers and continued focus on innovation and tackling inequality to ensure continued improvement.

The key findings of Labour Productivity Statistics for the period 1998-2013 include:

• In 2013, Scottish labour productivity as measured by output per hour was 97.7% of the average UK value - a gap of 2.3 percentage points
• Output per hour remains at a similar level to that reached in 2010 but is around 4% higher than in 2007 prior to the recession, compared to no growth in UK productivity over the same period.
• In 2013 the average number of hours worked per job increased for the first time since 2007

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said:

“This Government has identified increased productivity as a key part of our economic strategy to deliver sustainable growth. We are making good progress towards our long term strategic target to raise productivity levels by 2017, and are investing in the skills, innovation, research and development and digital infrastructure which will help us to deliver this.

“Although these trends are encouraging, they must be improved upon further. The Scottish Government’s support for increased innovation and for measures such as the Living Wage and the Scottish Business pledge which encourage businesses to focus on improving productivity are a key part of our strategy. More powers for Scotland, such as control of business taxes and the minimum wage, would give us the right tools to boost productivity even further.”

Notes To Editors

The Labour Productivity statistics are available at:http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Economy/PROD2013

This release reports annual labour productivity estimates for the period 1998-2013 covering total output in the Scottish onshore economy. Labour productivity measures the amount of economic output that is produced by a unit of labour input (measured in this release in terms of jobs and hours worked) and is an important indicator of economic performance. Results are calculated in both real (inflation adjusted) and nominal (current price, not adjusted for inflation) terms.

Output statistics in this release are consistent with the latest Quarterly National Accounts Scotland published on 13 May 2015. Labour input measures are consistent with the ONS NUTS1 results for countries and regions in Labour Productivity 2014 Q3 published on 24 December 2014.