Labour productivity in the transport sector unchanged over the past decade

• Labour productivity in the transport sector remained unchanged over the past ten years.
• From an international perspective, labour productivity in the Netherland’s transport sector is high.
• Labour productivity in aviation remains below pre-pandemic levels.

The transport sector has seen a significant slowdown in improvements in labour productivity over the past ten years, to the extent that it has actually declined. However, labour productivity in this sector is still higher than in other countries with similarly sized economies. This is according to figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) published in its article Stagnation of labour productivity in the transport sector, 2014-2024.

Labour productivity for the economy as a whole has continued to grow since 2014. Between 1995 and 2014, labour productivity in the transport sector, including postal and delivery services, aviation and inland shipping, grew faster than that of the Dutch economy as a whole. Labour productivity is expressed as the value added per hour worked. Growth in labour productivity is seen as an important driver of prosperity, especially in the long term.

Productivity has recovered since coronavirus pandemic, except for aviation

Between 2014 and 2019, labour productivity in the transport sector as a whole fell by -0.4 percent each year, on average. Aviation was the only sub-sector that made a positive contribution to productivity improvements (up by 0.2 percentage points). Storage and transport services (including ports and Schiphol Airport) made the largest negative contribution, while in inland shipping productivity remained unchanged. Prior to 2014, these sub-sectors had been important drivers of labour productivity growth in the transport sector.

Between 2020 and 2024, average annual labour productivity showed positive growth across all sectors of transport except for aviation. Value added in aviation has still not returned to pre-pandemic levels. However, labour volume in terms of hours worked recovered and exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2024.

Labour productivity can grow within a sub-sector, but it can also increase across the transport sector as a whole when labour shifts to more productive sub-sectors, which has a structural effect. Since 2014, this has contributed to labour productivity growth because in relative terms more jobs have been created in storage and transport services, a productive sub-sector within transport.

Since 2014, various structural and cyclical changes may have prevented labour productivity in this sector from increasing. For example, international trade has grown less substantially over the past ten years than it did before 2014, and business dynamics have declined. Changes within sub-sectors may also have been a factor contributing to this drop, such as fewer letters being sent and more parcels being delivered, which has led to postal and delivery services becoming more labour-intensive.

Dutch transport sector is productive compared to other countries

Labour productivity improvements have stagnated in the Dutch transport sector, but it remains more productive than that of other countries. Transport companies in Belgium and the Netherlands contribute the most to value added per hour worked. In 2024, this averaged 74 euros per hour in Belgium, slightly higher than in the Netherlands, where value added was 66 euros per hour worked.

One of the reasons for the higher labour productivity in Belgium is high productivity in postal and delivery services. In Poland (21 euros) and Spain (35 euros), value added per hour worked was significantly lower than it was in both the Netherlands and Belgium.