Labor productivity suddenly weakens in Canada

Canadian businesses’ productivity went down by 0.3% for the first quarter following a 0.2% leap in the fourth quarter of the previous year.

During the first quarter, the country’s business activity speeded down in contrast with the previous quarter, while the surge rate of hours worked speeded up and beat the surge in production.

Surge in the GDP of enterprises speeded down to 0.2%. The slowdown in production surge in the first quarter became possible because of a slowdown in the production of services and also because of a dip in the volume of real estate as well as retail trade. However, the surge in production among businesses producing goods proceeded with a similar pace, exactly as in the previous quarter.

Real GDP surge growth in the first quarter was accompanied by a 0.5% jump of hours worked, after they tacked on by 0.2% in the previous quarter. As for the working hours, they rallied both in the production of goods and in services because 11 of the 16 large industries managed to grow. The largest soar was seen in administrative services and construction, while the greatest dive took place in real estate, hitting 2%. Additionally, hours of work in the field of public services as well as art and entertainment were generally intact.

Businesses producing both services and good contributed to a general sink in productivity in the first quarter.

Besides this, productivity at commodity-producing businesses went down by 0.5%, having ascended by up to 0.1% in the previous quarter. A decline in productivity in agriculture, forestry, production as well as construction was compensated by surge in mining, gas and crude output and utilities.

Additionally, the productivity at the enterprises producing services tumbled by 0.1%, following a 0.6% leap in the previous quarter.