Output Per Worker (Hansard, 5 February 2004)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from the National Statistician, Len Cook, dated 5 February 2004.

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question on the rise in output per worker in the United Kingdom annually since 1960. (HL983)

The Office for National Statistics publishes an output per job measure and not the output per worker measure requested. This measure maintains consistency between the output and labour data used in the productivity calculations. These data differ from the 'worker' measure as they include second, third and other jobs in the labour denominator used to compile the output per job measure.

The accompanying table shows the annual percentage growth rate of output per job for the UK whole economy for each year fom 1961 to 2002.

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The average annual percentage growth rate in whole economy output per job from 1961 to 2002 is 2.1 per cent. The average annual percentage growth rate from 1997 to 2002 is 1.6 per cent. The growth in output per job in the 12 months to 2003 quarter three compared with the 12 months to 2002 quarter three is 1.7 per cent.

Whole economy output per job figures are not available on a monthly basis.

UK whole economy output per job percentage growth rates, 1961 to 2002
Year	Annual Percentage Change
1961	1.3
1962	0.9
1963	5.3
1964	4.1
1965	1.7
1966	1.2
1967	3.3
1968	4.8
1969	2.2
1970	2.5
1971	3.7
1972	3.3
1973	5.3
1974	-1.5
1975	0.1
1976	3.2
1977	2.1
1978	2.0
1970	0.7
1980	-1.4
1981	2.1
1982	4.3
1983	4.0
1984	0.0
1985	2.5
1986	3.4
1987	2.3
1988	1.1
1989	-0.7
1990	0.3
1991	2.1
1992	3.6
1993	3.5
1994	3.9
1995	1.8
1996	1.6
1997	1.5
1998	2.1
1999	1.1
2000	2.4
2001	1.1
2002	1.4