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ILO finds accelerated labour productivity in India

PTI - New Delhi

India has found a place among the industrialised economies, including the US and EU nations, for accelerated labour productivity, according to a recent report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

In its Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM), ILO, however, said the overall growth in agricultural productivity was not enough, calling for growth in productivity and employment to reduce poverty. "Growth in productivity per person employed in the world as a whole accelerated from 1.5 per cent during the first half of the 1990s to 1.9 per cent in the second half. Most of this growth was concentrated in industrialised economies (US and some EU countries), plus some in Asia (China, India, Pakistan and Thailand," the ILO report said. The biennial KILM measured productivity as annual output per person employed and average output per hour worked. It, however, said the estimates of output per hour worked were less than output per person employed when compared across countries because the measure of hours varied "significantly".

Analysing the 20 key parameters, including employment, unemployment, underemployment, hours worked, types of economic activity and labour productivity, it said people in the Asian continent worked more than their counterparts in the developed world.

"In all the developing Asian economies, where data were available, people worked more than (those) in industrialised economies," the ILO report said. It was a typical sign for developing countries as they often compensate for the lack of technology and capital with people working longer hours, ILO said. On the agriculture sector, which formed the cornerstone of many developing economies, it found that employment in the sector had rapidly grown in developed countries, but not in the rest of world. "The overall trends show that growth is not enough," the ILO director general Mr Juan Somavia said in the report.

Given the relatively larger size of the agricultural sector in developing economies, it said the sector remains a potential to faster productivity growth. Access to domestic and international markets in agri goods and development and implementation of environmentally sustainable technologies are important vehicles to raise productivity growth in agriculture," the report said. "The new analysis suggests that a rise in productivity and employment may be the only way to reduce poverty," ILO added.