scholarly journals Labour Market Trends and Outlook

Author(s):  
Joselyn Stroombergen

Given New Zealand's recent robust economic performance, 3.6% per annum on average since 1999, the strong improvement in a wide array of la hour market indicators has not been surprising. What has surprised many economic commentators has been the continued strength of the labour market in the face of the recent slowing economic activity.The ability of the economy to make use of its labour capacity may have improved suggesting a fall in New Zealand's non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU).With labour utilisation now stretched to the limit if we want to maintain economic growth at levels we have become accustomed to, we will need to substantially lift the level of labour productivity growth in the coming years. However making the transition to a more productive economy while maintaining the gains we have achieved in labour utilisation will not be an easy task.

2010 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
pp. R2-R14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iana Liadze ◽  
Martin Weale

This article compares the performance of the UK economy since 1997 with that between 1979 and 1997 and with the performance of the other G7 economies in both periods. It concludes that Britain has done relatively well in terms of productivity growth, economic growth and national income per head but not very well in terms of labour market performance. Savings rates were too low to deliver sustainable economic growth over the period 1979–97 and there has been very little improvement since then. The performance of the economy during the recession and its immediate aftermath has been disappointing relative to the other G7 economies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-182
Author(s):  
Monica Thind ◽  
Lakhwinder Singh

The structural change in an economy is an important feature of the economic development process. Structural change becomes a potential source of growth in an economy as it induces reallocation of labour from low-productivity to high-productivity sectors, thus leading to fuller and better utilization of overall resources. This article studies the relationship between structural change and growth in 15 major states of India over the 30-year period from 1983–1984 to 2014–2015. The study aims at discovering whether structural changes have contributed to economic growth of these states or otherwise. This is achieved by decomposing the overall labour productivity growth of states into contribution by structural change and within sector change. The results show that in all the states under study structural changes have contributed positively to growth; however, contribution of within sector changes is found to be much more than structural change in all states except Maharashtra.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Ram C. Acharya

Using firm-level data in Canada from 2002 to 2008, I compare the economic performance of three types of firms: those that both export and import (called globally trading firms—GTFs), exporters-only, and importers-only. The results show that GTFs are more productive, larger, more capital intensive, pay higher wages, trade more goods, and trade with more countries than both types of one-way traders. These premia for GTFs were found even before they turned into GTFs (self-selection). Moreover, even after turning into GTFs, the productivity growth of a subset of them was faster than that of one-way traders. The higher the involvement in global value chains (GVCs), the higher was the performance of the “learning-by-turning GTFs”. The GTFs with higher productivity growth were the ones that imported from multiple countries, not those that imported only from China. By another measure, they were both-in-both GTFs—those that traded both final and intermediate goods, and in both directions (exports and imports). Even though they employed only 10% of Canada’s business sector workforce, they contributed 60% of its labour productivity growth.


2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (60) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agostinho Silvestre Rosa

This paper estimates the Phillips curve in Portugal using the Johansen Method, with the wage inflation rate as a dependent variable, based on annual data from the period 1954-1995. The main conclusions are as follows. Firstly, in the long term, the wage inflation rate relates positively to the inflation rate and negatively to the unemployment rate, as expected. There is also a positive relationship between the wage inflation rate and the average labour productivity growth index. Secondly, in the short term, the variation of the wage inflation rate relates negatively and significantly to the error correction mechanism with a negative unitary coefficient; therefore, there is a quick and significant response to the equilibrium error between the wage inflation rate and its determinants. Besides this adjustment, the wage inflation rate responds positively to a lagged wage inflation rate. The variation in the unemployment rate and the average labour productivity growth present the expected signal, negative and positive respectively, but without significance in the short term. The dummy that refers to the April 1974 revolution is significant.


Author(s):  
Svetlana A. Samusenko ◽  

Labour productivity has a predominant impact on economic growth and the rate of postcrisis economic recovery. The increase in labour productivity, in turn, depends on the employed population’s standard of living. A comparative longitude analysis of these indicators’ dynamics reveals the potential for the economic growth of the territory. The historically determined asymmetry in the economic development of Russian regions requires analysis carried out at the national, sub-federal (federal districts), and regional levels. In the study, the author evaluates the dynamics of the per capita gross regional product (GRP), labour productivity, and real wages in constant prices at purchasing power parity for Russia, the Siberian Federal District, and Krasnoyarsk Krai. The results of this analysis allow comparing economic growth and labour productivity growth in Russia and Russian regions with international trends. The author has found that labour productivity per working hour measured in constant prices in Russia, Siberia, and Krasnoyarsk Krai is several times lower than the corresponding indicators of countries leading in productivity and economic growth. The dynamics of per capita GRP and labour productivity, measured both in current and constant prices, is positive. The statistical relationship between labour productivity growth and cyclical processes in the national economy is noted; in the crisis and post-crisis periods, there is outstripping growth in labour productivity due to the mobilization of the workers’ labour potential. The economy of the Siberian Federal District has been characterized by a steady excess of the growth rate of labour productivity over the growth rate of per capita GRP, while in Krasnoyarsk Krai and Russia this trend has manifested since 2014 with the onset of the crisis. This process indicates a change in the mechanisms of economic growth: with the entry into the crisis phase, human labour, as well as its efficiency, becomes the only significant factor in maintaining the stability of national and regional economies. The obtained results also show the depressive impact of a long-term decline in real wages on labour productivity and economic growth during the economic crisis. The structural analysis demonstrates that labour productivity growth has a strong positive effect on economic growth, while the growth of the employment rate has a moderate positive effect. A decline in the share of the working-age population in the demographic structure has a pronounced negative impact on economic growth in the long-term period. The study results can be used in the development of national and regional policies related to stimulating economic growth.


2017 ◽  
Vol 67 (s1) ◽  
pp. 67-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leon Podkaminer

This paper reports the results of an econometric examination on the links between labour productivity and output growth for 22 countries (for which long-term data are available). It turns out that, generally, labour productivity does not “cause” output. In more cases, the causation seems to be running in the opposite direction: from output to productivity. This finding, though inconsistent with the “mainstream” ideas on the sources of long-term economic growth, is reminiscent of the classical Kaldor-Verdoorn Law. The progressing slowdown in output growth on the global level, initiated around the mid-1970s (when the process of discarding the earlier economic policy paradigms set in), may have been mirrored by the progressing slowdown in productivity growth (and that despite the hardly disputable acceleration of technological progress).


Author(s):  
Oleg Badunenko

This chapter builds a model in which labour market regulations influence labour productivity growth through labour markets. The model decomposes labour productivity growth into components attributable to (i) changes in efficiency; (ii) technological change; (iii) physical capital deepening; (iv) human capital accumulation; (v) labour market regulations changes. The empirical analysis Penn World Tables and Economic Freedom of the World data is performed for 1970–95 and 1995–2014. Findings can be summarized as follows. First, physical capital deepening is the major driving force behind productivity growth over the period. Labour market regulation changes having contributed next to nothing during 1970–95, become the second most important force of economic growth after 1995. Second, relatively rich nations benefit more from changes to labour market regulations than do relatively poor nations. Finally, contributions from labour market regulations changes to growth is stronger for countries with less liberalized labour markets.


2015 ◽  
pp. 30-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Voskoboynikov ◽  
V. Gimpelson

This study considers the influence of structural change on aggregate labour productivity growth of the Russian economy. The term "structural change" refers to labour reallocation both between industries and between formal and informal segments within an industry. Using Russia KLEMS and official Rosstat data we decompose aggregate labour productivity growth into intra-industry (within) and between industry effects with four alternative methods of the shift-share analysis. All methods provide consistent results and demonstrate that total labour reallocation has been growth enhancing though the informality expansion has had a negative effect. As our study suggests, it is caused by growing variation in productivity levels across industries.


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