Alternative Measures of Productivity
2.23 As discussed previously, there are some issues around using GVA per head as a productivity measure. Using number of jobs, rather than population, to calculate productivity eliminates some of the distortion produced by commuting. However, this approach also has difficulties as it takes no account of variations in real local labour input, such as the balance of part time to full time. Labour productivity therefore is perhaps better measured by using number of hours worked – the advantages of this measure, however, are offset by difficulties in collecting sufficiently robust and meaningful data.
2.24 The following analysis uses the three separate denominators (heads, jobs and hours) to assess productivity relative to the UK average (UK=100). In 2005, the South West scored 93.6 on the ‘per head’ measure (93.8 in 2006, latest) and 94.4 on ‘per job’. This is somewhat contrary to common perception that the lower rates of productivity in the region can be attributed to lower levels of economic activity due to higher proportions of retired/economically inactive people in some areas. In truth the region, although having an ageing population, actually has higher rates of economic activity than the English average. South West England, however, does have a higher proportion of its workforce working part time. Therefore, productivity measured per hour worked, raises the South West position to 96.8% of the UK average.
