BUSTING THE PRODUCTIVITY MYTH? It is widely believed that the UK is one of the world’s worst performers when it comes to industrial productivity. But a new a new analysis casts doubt on this assumption. She eld-based FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics has been digging into gures produced by the World Bank and the OCED and has found that, in fact, the value added by UK manufacturing workers increased by almost $14,000 per worker between 2018 and 2023 – more than in any other major manufacturing economy over the same period. The data shows that UK manufacturers delivered a net output worth $280bn in 2023 (after removing the cost of energy, materials and other inputs). FourJaw’s analysis reveals that this equated to $109,000 of added value for each of the UK’s 2.6 million manufacturing workers during 2023. This gure was 15% higher than the $95,000 of the value added per worker in 2018. According to FourJaws’ gures, the productivity gains have lifted the UK’s per-worker manufacturing output above that of Germany ($106,000), South Korea ($93,000) or Japan ($76,000). These economies have previously outperformed the UK on a per-worker productivity basis, and continue to produce more than the UK in absolute terms. Only US manufacturing workers, who delivered a net output worth $167,000 each, produced more value more e ciently than their UK counterparts in 2023, the analysis suggests. Chinese manufacturers delivered a net output worth $4.7 trillion in 2023 – more than a quarter of the world’s combined total output of $16.2 trillion. With 214 million people reported to be working in the Chinese manufacturing sector in 2023, this gives the world’s biggest manufacturing economy a per-worker productivity gure of $22,000. The analysis also shows, unsurprisingly, that the UK now has one of the smallest manufacturing workforces in the industrialised world, having slipped from 2.7 million in 2018 to 2.6 million in 2023. Indonesia, by comparison, has 18.8 million, India has 18.4 million (an increase of two million since 2018), the US has 14.9 million, Brazil has 11.6 million, and Japan has 10.8 million. If FourJaws’ analysis is accurate, then the UK appears to be punching above its weight in terms of productivity per worker. “Many of the world’s major manufacturing economies still produce more value in absolute terms than the UK,” points out FourJaw’s CEO, Chris Iveson, “but they need many more people to do so.” Iveson adds that the UK’s manufacturing workers have “only just scratched the surface of what is now possible on productivity.”The new gures, although welcome, are no excuse for complacency. Tony Sacks, Editor n COMMENT pot en ti a l o f y o Are you inve our workforce? esting in the mproves Comp Creates an Adaptable a ncreases Productivi mproves Safe W Industry recognised co I I a I any Reputation nd Flexible Workforce y and Performance orking Practices ourses from the BFPA W t a p Please call 01608 6479 00 or bfpa.co.u RITISH FLUID POW B email enquiries@bfpa.co.uk k/training WER ASSOCIATION / Controls & Drives don@dfamedia.co.uk sara.gor 01732 370341 don Sara Gor damien.oxlee@dfamedia.co.uk 01732 370342 Damien Oxlee ols Contact us at Drives & Contr AVE COULD HA ADVERTISEMENT IMPACT YOUR IMAGINE THE 60,000+ ENGINEERS THIS, THEN SO ARE IF YOU’RE READING
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