December 4, 2023
The at times blasé response, whenever New Zealand’s new productivity numbers are released, should be a concern for all of us. It’s as if we are in the fourth stage of denial: It’s bad and there is nothing we can […]
August 4, 2023
From the beginning of our series on the myths and hard truths of New Zealand’s low productivity, we’ve stressed the limitations of our current productivity measure. In our first episode in this series we wrote: “Productivity is measured here as GDP per FTE (or hour worked). It’s a crude and single-focus productivity measure…” We also explained the link between Productivity and Wellbeing [...]
July 31, 2023
Since the release of the New Zealand Productivity Commission 2023 Productivity Data, there has been considerable interest in our series on the myths and hard truths of our low productivity. Among the questions: which sectors detract from our productivity numbers, and which sectors support a higher productivity [...]
July 24, 2023
For quite some time I have been perpetuating a myth about New Zealand’s Low Productivity. I’ve been misleading my audiences from the top of the North to the bottom of the South. In this fourth instalment of the our series on the myths and hard truths on our low productivity, I will correct my mistake, dispell this myth and apologise [...]
July 23, 2023
Only a fair comparison will give us the insights to improve New Zealand’s Low Productivity. In this third article in our series on myths and hard truths on our low productivity, we further unpack our productivity gap: we’re at 68% of productive output compared to the other OECD countries. But that is against all OECD nations, large and small. Can we realistically compare ourselves with [...]
July 17, 2023
We’ve lamented the sorry state of New Zealand’s low productivity in the first article of our ‘myths and hard truths’ series. We promised to trawl through the data for you. At 68% of productive output compared to the other (early) OECD countries, we are lagging well behind, and this will affect our future generations big time, if not our own. This series is a call for action. Well-directed action that is. So, in [...]
July 13, 2023
Whenever new numbers are released about New Zealand’s productivity, we go through the motions of collective self-flagellation. “We’re behind the rest and we’re slipping further”. If we continue this, we’ll be just a puddle of misery.
It was no different when the New Zealand Productivity Commission / Te Kōmihana Whai Hua o Aotearoa released the latest numbers last week. In the press release, Commission Chair Dr Ganesh Nana notes, “the numbers show that the productivity [...]