The OECD has published its 2026 Compendium of Productivity Indicators, reporting that economy-wide labour productivity across OECD countries rose by 1.2% in 2024, double the 2023 pace, with 29 countries recording gains despite elevated uncertainty. The report also shows that the OECD average investment rate edged down to 22.6% of GDP from 23.0% in 2023, while multifactor productivity remained weak and continued its longer-run decline. Country outcomes diverged sharply, with the United States posting 2.2% labour productivity growth and the European Union only 0.2%, widening the transatlantic productivity gap. The compendium highlights that aggregate figures mask substantial variation across industries, firms and regions. Productivity growth in 2023-24 was driven mainly by improvements within industries rather than shifts in labour across sectors, while information and communication services and professional services recorded the strongest industry-level multifactor productivity growth and several European manufacturing sectors weakened. Denmark stood out with manufacturing gains driven by pharmaceuticals. Across OECD and accession candidate countries, average labour productivity of small and medium-sized enterprises was only 65% of that of large firms in 2024, and that gap has widened in most countries since 2013. The report also includes environmentally adjusted multifactor productivity estimates, which suggest efficiency gains explained roughly half of pollution-adjusted GDP growth in 38 OECD countries over 1996-2018.

Original source