Labour productivity of Canadian businesses increased 0.2 percent in the second quarter of 2019, easing from an upwardly revised 0.4 percent gain in the first quarter and worse than market expectations of a 0.3 percent increase. Hours worked rebounded (0.8 percent vs -0.4 percent in Q1), while growth in business output also accelerated, surpassing the gain in hours worked. The real GDP of business accelerated (2.3 percent vs 1.5 percent), with mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector contributing the most to the gain. The productivity increase in the second quarter was mainly attributable to goods-producing businesses (0.6 percent) while in service-producing business declined 0.2 percent. Productivity in Canada averaged 87.87 Index Points from 1981 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 106.56 Index Points in the second quarter of 2017 and a record low of 67.27 Index Points in the third quarter of 1981.
Productivity in Canada is expected to be 106.50 Index Points by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Productivity in Canada to stand at 108.20 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Canada Productivity is projected to trend around 112.00 Index Points in 2020, according to our econometric models.