WELLINGTON, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's labor productivity, which measures the quantity of goods and services produced per hour of labor, rose 0.5 percent in the year ended March 2019, the country's Stats NZ said on Thursday.
"The latest figures showed workers produced 137 goods or services for each hour worked in 2019, compared with 100 an hour in 1996," national accounts senior manager Ruvani Ratnayake said in a statement.
Market producers, a wide range of industries known as the "measured sector," increased the amount of labor they used by 3 percent and increased their output by 3.5 percent in the March 2019 year, statistics showed.
Primary industries, including agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining, experienced the strongest labor productivity growth, rising 12 percent after falls in each of the previous two years, according to Stats NZ.
Labor productivity in the primary industries has generally improved since 1996, as improvements in technology and management have allowed farms to produce more with less labor, Ratnayake said.
Labor productivity in the goods-producing and service industries declined 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, statistics showed.
