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February 12, 2021HOURS WORKED AND LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY, 2019 [REVISED] Statistics Canada has revised labour productivity accounts for the provinces for 2016 to 2019. The data are consistent with revisions to provincial and territorial economic accounts and the provincial and territorial gross domestic product (GDP) by industry data released on November 9, 2020, as well as revisions to national GDP by industry released on December 1, 2020.
In 2019, Nova Scotia's labour productivity in the business sector increased by 2.8% following a decrease of 2.5% in 2018 and five consecutive years of growth from 2013 to 2017. Canada's labour productivity in the business sector increased 0.7% in 2019 after growth of 0.9% in 2018, 2.2% in 2017, and 0.2% in 2016. In Nova Scotia, 40.8 dollars (chained 2012) of GDP was produced per hour of work in 2019. Nationally, labour productivity in the business sector was 57.1 dollars per hour in 2019.
Labour productivity increased 0.4% in Nova Scotia's goods-producing sector and rose 3.7% in the service-producing sector. In Canada, productivity fell in the goods-producing sector by 0.8% while the services-producing sector had an increase of 1.7%.
In Nova Scotia, the 2.8% increase in labour productivity was the result of 2.6% growth in real value added and a 0.2% decline in total hours worked. Over the past five years, Nova Scotia's business sector labour productivity has increased by 7.1% and total hours worked have increased 3.1%, resulting in a 10.6% increase in real value added.
Business sector productivity increased in seven provinces in 2019 with declines in Newfoundland and Labrador (-0.8%), Ontario (-0.2%), and Saskatchewan (-2.5%). The largest labour productivity increases in 2019 were in the Maritimes and Quebec.
Hours worked in the business sector rose in five provinces in 2019 with the largest increase in Ontario (+2.2%). The largest hours worked declines were in New Brunswick (-1.7%) and Alberta (-1.5%).
Compensation per hour of work in the business sector was up 1.0% in Nova Scotia to $27.84. Compensation per hour worked was up in all provinces except Saskatchewan, with the largest increase in Quebec (+6.6%). Compensation per hour of work increased 3.6% across Canada in 2019.
With compensation per hour worked (+1.0%) increasing at a slower pace than labour productivity (+2.8%), the unit labour cost (dollars per unit of real GDP) was down in Nova Scotia by 1.7% in 2019. Unit labour costs were up in seven provinces with declines only in the Atlantic region. The unit labour cost was down 2.4% in Newfoundland and Labrador, 1.7% in Nova Scotia, 0.9% in New Brunswick, while Prince Edward Island (+0.3%) recorded the only increase for the region. The Canadian average unit labour cost increased 2.8%.
Unit labour costs in US dollars decreased in six provinces, with Nova Scotia down 4.1% and the average across Canada up 0.4%.
Within Nova Scotia, labour productivity of the goods sector was up 0.4% with gains in Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (+5.4%), construction (+0.5%) and manufacturing (+2.7%). Mining and oil and gas extraction labour productivity declined 28.2% in 2019, as hours worked rose 15.6% and output declined 16.9%.
Business sector service productivity increased 3.7% in 2019. The fastest growth was in educational services (business sector) (+9.8%) and wholesale trade (+7.8%). Declines in labour productivity occurred in administrative, support, wage management and remediation services (-1.9%) and other private services (-1.4%).
Compared to the August 2020 release, revisions to Nova Scotia productivity growth rates were most notable in 2017 (+1.0 percentage points). Overall, the growth in business sector labour productivity from 1997 to 2019 was revised upwards from 28.0% to 29.9%.
Upward revisions in 2017 were more pronounced in the goods sector, with productivity growth for the sector revised up 2.3 percentage points. Labour productivity growth was revised upwards for mining and oil and gas extraction (+3.8 percentage points), utilities (+5.9 percentage points) and construction (+8.3 percentage points).
Note: Data for educational services and health care and social assistance sectors only includes activity related to the business sector. All figures in this report do not include activity of the non-business sector and government sector.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table 36-10-0480-01 Labour productivity and related measures by business sector industry and by non-commercial activity consistent with the industry accounts
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