How is UK productivity measured?

The ONS measures labour productivity mainly as output per hour worked, and also output per worker and per job. It publishes these quarterly in its productivity overview, with breakdowns by industry and region.

The ONS also compares productivity across the G7 using OECD data. Productivity figures are revised when GDP or hours data change, so a figure from a year ago may have moved.

Official sources: ONS productivity measures

The latest figure

The newest value is at Office for National Statistics (ONS). More on it: Average weekly hours worked in the UK.

When is the next figure out?

Monthly, usually a Tuesday in the middle of the month, 7am, in the ONS labour market release; next release 20 October 2026

Every official release due in the next two weeks is on the release calendar.

Terms used in this answer

• Per capita (per head)
  A total divided by the number of people in the population, such as GDP per head or spending per person, to allow fair comparison between places or years.
• Chained volume measure
  The ONS method for showing GDP and other output after removing price changes, by linking year-to-year volume changes together. This is 'real' GDP.
• Productivity
  How much output the economy produces for each unit of input. The ONS headline measure is output per hour worked.
• Mean
  The total of all values divided by how many there are. Often what people mean by 'average', it can be pulled up or down by a few extreme values.
• Seasonally adjusted
  Figures that have had regular calendar patterns removed, such as Christmas shopping or summer jobs, so that underlying movements between months or quarters can be seen.
• Full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount
  FTE converts part-time posts into full-time units, so two half-time staff count as one FTE. Headcount counts each person once regardless of hours.

Where the figures come from

• UK labour market statistics (ONS, Nomis and the gender pay gap reporting service)
  How to find official UK figures on jobs, vacancies, zero-hours contracts, strikes, public sector jobs, sickness, inactivity and pay gaps, and check claims.
• UK trade statistics (ONS, HMRC uktradeinfo and Department for Business and Trade)
  Where to find official UK trade figures: the ONS trade bulletin and balance of payments, HMRC uktradeinfo by product code, and DBT country factsheets.

Related questions

• How big is the UK economy (GDP)?
• How does UK GDP compare with other countries?
• What is UK GDP per capita?

This answer says where the official figures are published and how they are defined. It gives no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request. More questions about economy, jobs and wages: all Economy, jobs and wages questions.