Statistical presentation

Data description

Labor productivity (LP) is defined as the real value of Gross value added (GVA) per hour worked. The calculations are based on figures from market activity. In the statistic "Productivity" the growth in LP is derived from contributions from four sources: It capital deepening (It capital per hour worked) Non-it capital deepening Educational level Total factor productivity (TFP)

The method used in the statistic is based on Jorgenson et al. (2002), "Growth of U.S. Industries and Investments in Information Technology and Higher Education", and OECD (2001), "Measuring productivity. Measurement of aggregate and industry-level productivity growth".

In 2019 the productivity calculations were supplemented with numbers for the so called KLEMS method. After the KLEMS release in 2019 (with figures for 2017), in the future, the KLEMS statistics will be published irregularly approximately every 5 years.

In November 2010 the statistic was supplemented with the so called KLEMS method. The productivity measurement for this method is output per hours worked. The KLEMS method calculates the contributions from K, L, E, M and S (Capital, Labor and intermediate consumption of Energy, Materials and Services). After the publication of figures for 2017 the production of the KLEMS statistics has been put on hold. In the future, it will be published irregularly, approximately every fifth year.

Classification system

Statistics Denmark's industrial classification DB07, which is a Danish version of the EU NACE, rev. 2. and the UN's ISIC, rev. 4, contains a number of standard classifications: the 127, 36, 19, and 10 classifications.

Productivity is calculated from national accounts figures. The national accounts classification of 117 industries corresponds - with few deviations - to the 127 standard classification and the 117 industries of the national accounts can be aggregated to the other standard classifications. For this reason, productivity figures can easily be compared to and used in connection with other statistics that are based on the DB07-standard classifications.

Internationally there is a high degree of comparability with the productivity figures of other countries because the Danish productivity figures is compiled in accordance with the definitions in the European System of National Accounts ESA2010.

Sector coverage

All industries according to Danish Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities 2007 (DB07).

Statistical concepts and definitions

Labor productivity (Gross value added per hour worked): Labor productivity is defined as the real value of Gross value added per hour worked. The calculations are based on figures from market activity, i.e. the total economy excluding the sectors: General government (S.13) and NPISH (S.15).

It capital: covers:

• Computer hardware
• Telecommunication equipment
• Computer software and databases

Non-it capital: covers:

• Dwellings
• Buildings other than dwellings
• Other structures and land improvements
• Transport equipment
• Machinery and equipment excl. It capital (see definition above)
• Weapon systems
• Cultivated biological resources
• Research and development
• Mineral exploration and evaluation
• Entertainment, literary or artistic originals and other intellectual property products

Labor quality: The index of labor quality measures the contribution of substitution among the components of labor input to the volume obtained from a given number of hours. Labor quality is thus an indicator of the quality of the input of labor hours and captures the compositional change in the working force. The heterogeneity among the employees is here based on their educational attainment, and therefore the index is called educational level. The educational attainment of the employees are divided into five educational categories:

• Basic school
• Vocational
• Some college no BA
• BA
• More than BA

Output productivity (output per hour worked): Output productivity is defined as the real value of output per hour worked. Output is here defined as production excl. other taxes less subsidies on production. The calculations are based on figures from market activity, i.e. the total economy excluding the sectors: General government (S.13) and NPISH (S.15).

Statistical unit

For the compilation of output, intermediate consumption, taxes linked to production and subsidies, wages and salaries, employment, fixed capital formation and depreciation, the statistical unit is the local kind-of-activity unit. For the compilation of distributive and financial transactions, which cannot be divided up unambiguously among the individual kind-of-activity units belonging to a decision making unit (enterprise), the unit is the larger institutional unit, which in most cases will be the same as the legal unit which is the enterprise.

Statistical population

All units generating Danish economic activity.

Reference area

Denmark.

Time coverage

1966-2023 for Labor Productivity (the last year will appear in the name of the publication). 1966-2022 for Productivity (the last year will appear in the name of the publication).

Base period

Gross value added is compiled as chain volume indices (chained values) with 2010 as base year. This is an attempt to isolate the volume part of the monetary values.

Unit of measure

Percent and index.

Reference period

2023

Frequency of dissemination

Annually.

Legal acts and other agreements

Act on Statistics Denmark § 6 and §§ 8 - 12.

Council Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of May 21 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (ESA2010) (OJ L 174 26.06.2013, p. 1).

Cost and burden

There is no direct burden of response since data are collected for other purposes.

Comment

The publication of labor productivity from 30 June 2023, which contains new preliminary calculations for 2020-2022, are calculated on the basis of the national accounts publication from the same date. The increased uncertainty of the latter (see more below) therefore results in increased uncertainty of the productivity calculations, which results in the newest years (2021 and 2022) being published at a more aggregated industry level (the 10a3 industry grouping) than usual. The publication of national accounts from 30 June 2023, which contains new preliminary calculations for 2020-2022, is generally more uncertain than usual, especially for 2022 where the data from primary statistics is still relatively incomplete. In addition, the uncertainty is greater than usual due to the high but at the same time diverse price increases for a number of key products, particularly energy. It is therefore more difficult than usual to establish a robust overall status of the economy and, not least, of how intermediate consumption is distributed by industry. As the precision is assessed to be less than desired, the most recent years (2021 and 2022) are published at a more aggregated industry level (the 10a3 industry grouping) than usual. The final publication of 2020 and 2021 will be available in June 2024, when the most detailed sources are available and detailed product balances are drawn up. See more information in the national accounts statistical documentation.

Further information can be found at the Subject page for these statistics, or by contacting Statistics Denmark directly.