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Productivity

Volume 408: debated on Wednesday 9 July 2003

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To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the output per hour worked was in (a) the UK, (b) Germany, (c) France, (d) United States and (e) Japan in each of the past 10 years. [124106]

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mrs. Curtis-Thomas dated 9 July 2003:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question concerning what the output per hour worked was in (a) the UK, (b) Germany, (c) France, (d) United States and (e) Japan in each of the past 10 years. (124106)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes international comparisons of productivity (1CP) on output per hour worked on an experimental basis, with UK = 100. The data runs from 1990. Levels of output per hour worked in Germany, France, the US and Japan are expressed as relative to the UK level. The reason why hourly 1CP is experimental is provided in the document available at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_economy/review_of hourly_ICP.pdf
1CP is a web-only publication and published twice a year, usually in September and February. February 2003 was the latest release http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=160), with the data requested available at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/experimental/icp.xls.
It should be noted that these numbers have not incorporated the results of the UK Census 2001. We will update the numbers with revisions reflecting the Census in the next release coming out in September 2003. ONS estimates suggest that this improves UK relative hourly productivity performance by 3 to 5 index points for the most recent year