Labour productivity in the commercial sector rises by 2.5 percent

Labour productivity is a measure of the efficiency of the work that is carried out in an economy. It is expressed in terms of value added per hour worked. Labour productivity is an important economic indicator: rising labour productivity leads to more profitable firms and a more prosperous country. The gross value added of the commercial sector as a whole increased by 1.7 percent in 2025, despite a decrease in total hours worked of 0.8 percent. Overall, this results in an increase in labour productivity of 2.5 percent.

Trade sector contributed the most to productivity growth

Labour productivity improvements can occur in two ways. Firstly, it may rise if the average across all sectors increases. This effect is known as the autonomous effect. This was the case in 2025. The trade and manufacturing sectors made the largest contribution to the increase in labour productivity. By contrast, the energy supply and information and communication sectors made the most negative contributions to labour productivity.

More hours worked in more productive sectors

Total labour productivity will also rise if a larger number of hours are worked in more productive sectors, relative to other sectors. By the same token, if more hours are worked in less productive sectors, this has a downward effect on overall labour productivity. These kinds of effects are known as structural effects. They are unrelated to any increase or decrease in the total number of hours worked. Instead, they represent shifts between economic sectors.

In 2025, the number of hours worked rose by the most in more productive sectors, in relative terms, such as energy supply and information and communication. As a result, the overall structural effect was slightly positive at 0.1 percent.

Higher multifactor productivity

Another way of looking at changes in labour productivity is to break it down into three factors: capital goods, increased use of capital goods per hour worked (capital deepening), a better-skilled workforce (labour composition effect), and other factors, such as economies of scale and technological progress (multifactor productivity).

Both the contribution of capital deepening (+0.2 percentage points) and the labour composition effect (+0.2 percentage points) made a positive contribution in 2025. As a result, more capital (such as machinery and computers) and relatively better-skilled staff were deployed per hour worked.

However, the bulk of the rise in labour productivity in 2025 was attributable to an increase in the contribution of multifactor productivity (+2.1 percentage points). Multi-factor productivity can be viewed as a measure of technological progress, and indicates an increase in the efficient use of means of production in the production process.