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Labour market and income data guide
March 2001

Productivity Growth in Canada

Description: Provide estimates on two types of productivity measures by industry : labour productivity and multifactor productivity. Both measures are complemented by related variables such as output measures, hours worked, capital stock, intermediate inputs, hourly compensation and unit labour cost. The main purpose of these data is to analyse over time the economic performance at the aggregate level or at the industry detail and in comparison to other industries and other countries.

Whom/what is surveyed: Cover all the production made by Canadian enterprises and all hours worked, capital and other inputs devoted to this production.

How the data is collected: Estimates are the result of the integration of Input and Output data by industry and goods and services and other variables produced in the System of National Accounts with estimates of jobs and hours worked data derived from the Survey of Employment, Payroll and Hours, the Labour Force Survey, the Annual surveys of mining and manufacturing industries and other employment surveys and with Capital stock data.

Geographic detail: Canada for most variables and by province starting with 1996 for the number of jobs consistent with the new provincial input-output tables in current dollars only .

Information collected:

* labour productivity and related variables: number of jobs, hours worked at all jobs (paid and unpaid work), real value added, total labour compensation for all jobs, hourly compensation and unit labour cost, special aggregates and by industry.
* multifactor productivity: gross output, intra-industry, value added and inter-industry productivity, special aggregates and by industry. It includes also industry data on total output, total input and major categories of inputs; capital, labour, energy, material and services (KLEMS) in constant and current dollars.
* number of jobs and hours worked for the System of national accounts (SNA) non-commercial sector by special aggregates and industry.
* the special aggregates for all productivity measures include business sector industries, business sector goods, business sector services, business sector without agriculture, manufacturing - non-durables and manufacturing - durables;

Frequency: Quarterly and annual estimates are published.

Data availability: Quarterly estimates are available from the first quarter of 1987. Most of the annual estimates start in 1961 but some aggregates are available since 1946.

Reference period: Quarter and year

Release dates: Two months after the reference quarter for the quarterly and three months after the end of the reference year for the preliminary estimates of the annual data.

What makes the data valuable: These data are consistent with the System of national accounts and are deemed comparable with many other countries that used similar methodologies. All annual series are consistent going back to 1961 and to 1946 for some aggregates.

Related surveys or data: All data by industry produced by the Canadian System of National Accounts, mainly from the Input-Output Framework.

Products and services:

Labour productivity, hourly compensation and unit labour cost, The Daily, December 20, 2000
Multifactor productivity, The Daily, September 26, 2000
Labour productivity, hourly compensation and unit labour cost, The Daily, May 1, 2000

Productivity Growth in Canada, Catalogue No. 15-204 XPE (paper) and Catalogue No. 15-204-XIE.

Articles in Perspectives on Labour and Income,Catalogue no. 75-001-XPE, quarterly paper edition and Catalogue no. 75-001-XIE, monthly online edition. Articles in Productivity Growth in Canada and Canadian Economic Observer.

Cansim matrices 9455 to 9484

Special tabulations offered on a cost-recovery basis.

Labour productivity (indices on diskette: real gross domestic product (GDP), number of jobs, hours worked, labour compensation, labour productivity, compensation per job, compensation per hour, unit labour cost.

KLEMS database ( includes industry data on multifactor productivity, total output, total input and major categories of inputs; capital, labour, energy, material and services (KLEMS) in constant and current dollars.)

All series are available from 1961 through the most recent year, except in the case of the M, P and L level industries where the latest data are made available around three years after the most current year.