Productivity - Canadian Industry Statistics

Information and cultural industries - 51

The Labour productivity index can be used to identify trends in labour-productivity within the sector and to demonstrate changes when compared to the Canadian economy.

Between 2019 and 2020, labour productivity for this sector increased 1.6% compared to 7.5% for the Canadian economy (NAICS 11-91).

Labour productivity index: 2016-2020
2016Q1 2016Q2 2016Q3 2016Q4 2017Q1 2017Q2 2017Q3 2017Q4 2018Q1 2018Q2 2018Q3 2018Q4 2019Q1 2019Q2 2019Q3 2019Q4 2020Q1 2020Q2 2020Q3 2020Q4
Information and cultural industries 51 103.7 103.5 104.1 104.0 105.0 105.9 105.5 105.3 104.3 104.2 105.0 107.9 110.4 109.8 111.7 114.5 114.2 125.9 110.3 105.8
Canadian Economy 11-91 103.6 103.2 104.3 104.6 105.8 105.9 105.5 105.9 105.9 106.2 106.3 106.1 106.5 106.9 107.4 107.5 111.7 125.3 113.7 111.5

Source: Statistics Canada, tables 36-10-0207-01 and 36-10-0480-01.

  • Notes

    Labour productivity data is only available at the NAICS sector (2-digit) level. As a result, businesses should use caution when using the data to make inferences about more specific industry segments.

    Labour productivity index measures the extent to which labour is efficiently used. An increase in labour productivity is associated with increases to real incomes and the standard of living for an economy. It is determined by its capital intensity (or changes in the amount of capital per hour worked), investment in human capital, and multi-factor productivity which includes technological change, organizational innovation, and economies of scale.

    Annual measures of labour productivity are helpful in identifying sources of economic growth, indicate how efficiently labour is used in production, and compute unit labour costs. However, these measurements must be interpreted carefully, as labour productivity estimates reflect change in other factors of production (such as capital) in addition to growth in productivity efficiency.

    Labour productivity defines its hours worked, as the total number of hours a person spends working, whether paid or not. Time lost to strikes, lockouts, sick leave, etc., is not included but travel time, time training, and overtime hours are comprised in the total.

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