INTHEBLACK February 2025 - Magazine - Page 23
pandemic. However, the ABS observed that
in the 12 months prior to February 2024,
only about 8 per cent of employed people,
or 1.1 million people, changed their employer
or business. This was down from 9.6 per cent
in February 2023 and back to what Australia
typically experienced during the five years
leading up to the pandemic.
Hawkins is not overly optimistic that
Australia, or other countries, can quickly
ramp up productivity, because elements
such as increasing skilled immigration,
improving education and shifting the skills
base take time.
“There’s almost no quick fix to productivity,”
he says.
Hawkins says there are also concerns about
a lack of competition and dynamism in the
Australian economy because of duopolies
or oligopolies in areas such as banks, telcos,
airlines and supermarkets.
“There’s not a lot of competition and,
as a result, there is no hard pressure put
on companies to improve productivity.” ■
HOW SINGAPORE MEASURES PRODUCTIVITY
READ
Singapore has long been regarded
as one of the world’s best economic
performers, but even the South-East
Asian powerhouse struggles when
it comes to labour productivity.
While labour productivity per actual
hour worked (AHW) soared during
COVID-19, by 2023 it had dropped
to -2.4 per cent, meaning the nation
had not met the Economic Strategies
Committee’s ambitious target of
2 to 3 per cent per annum of labour
productivity growth.
Labour productivity can be computed
in terms of real value added (VA) per
actual hour worked (AHW) or real VA
per worker.
In Singapore, real VA per worker is
most cited because VA and employment
data are readily available and easy
to calculate. However, using AHW as
a measure of labour input is thought
to better capture the actual amount
of work in an economy.
As a result, this measure has become
more popular in Singapore in recent
years, especially given the rising share
of part-time workers in the economy
and cyclical changes in the hours worked
by full-time employees.
an article on why
SME entrepreneurs
are key to
productivity growth
LISTEN
to a podcast
episode on the
outlook for the
economy in 2025
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