How productive are we?
Against other developed countries since 1970
New Zealand as % of the median of the 23 other countries that joined the OECD before 1975. 100% would be the middle of the group.
Output per hour worked
Real GDP per hour worked, US$ at 2021 prices and purchasing power.
Capital for each hour worked
Real capital stock per hour worked, US$ at 2021 prices.
Why incomes grew anyway
Growth in real net national income per person, from the 1995–2002 average to 2023, and what it came from.
Why we work more hours
| 2023 | People in work, % of population | Hours per worker a year | Hours per person a year |
|---|
Part-time work in New Zealand
% of employed people working under 30 hours a week, averaged over each year to December.
Hours usually worked in a week, all jobs
Share of employed people, four quarters to September 2026 quarter. "None" is people away from work that week.
Where New Zealand's productivity growth comes from
Average a year, measured sector, March years. Stats NZ.
By industry
Average annual growth in output per hour paid, years to March 1996–2025.
About these numbers
Long-run comparisons use the Penn World Table 11.0, which puts every country's output, hours and capital on the same footing back to 1970 (to 2023). The comparison group is the 23 other countries that joined the OECD before 1975, as the Productivity Commission uses; the median is less swayed by outliers such as Ireland and Luxembourg than an average.
Income per person is the OECD's real net national income per person: what residents earn after paying foreigners their returns on investment here and after depreciation. It tracks living standards more closely than GDP.
Why incomes grew splits growth in income per person into output per hour, hours worked per person, and the rest: terms of trade (what our exports buy), income paid to and received from abroad, and depreciation. Hours come from the Penn World Table and income and output from the OECD, so productivity is what's left; the OECD's own hours series for New Zealand has breaks in the 1990s and 2000s.
New Zealand's own figures are Stats NZ's productivity statistics for the measured sector: industries whose output is measured independently of their inputs (most of the economy except public administration, health and education).
Sources: Feenstra, Inklaar and Timmer, Penn World Table 11.0 (Groningen Growth and Development Centre, CC BY 4.0); OECD productivity database and national accounts; Stats NZ productivity statistics (Productivity statistics 19782025).