Multifactor productivity in the business sector increased in three of the four Atlantic provinces (Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia), Ontario and British Columbia in 2020, while it declined in Quebec and the three Prairie provinces. It changed little in New Brunswick.
Multifactor productivity measures the extent to which inputs are efficiently used in the production process. Multifactor productivity increases if growth in real gross domestic product exceeds growth in combined labour and capital inputs.
The largest increases in multifactor productivity in 2020 were observed in three of the four Atlantic provinces: Nova Scotia (+5.4%), Prince Edward Island (+5.0%), and Newfoundland and Labrador (+2.1%). Multifactor productivity declined the most in the three Prairie provinces: Alberta (-2.4%), Manitoba (-1.4%) and Saskatchewan (-1.0%). For Canada overall, multifactor productivity increased 0.5% in the business sector in 2020, the same rate as the average annual growth in the period from 2010 to 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
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