Labour productivity in the UK, as measured by output per hour, increased by 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter in the the three months to December 2018, up from a preliminary estimate of 0.2 percent growth and reversing a revised 0.2 percent drop in the previous period. There was a decline in the number of actual hours worked, while output growth accelerated. Labour productvity in services surged 0.5 percent (vs -0.5 percent in Q3), while that in manufacturing was unchanged (vs 0.2 percent in Q3). Year-on-year, productivity edged down 0.1 percent, the second successive fall. Considering 2018 full year, labour productivity grew 0.5 percent, with increases in both services and manufacturing of 0.8 percent and 0.3 percent respectively. Productivity in the United Kingdom averaged 75.60 Index Points from 1971 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 101.80 Index Points in the fourth quarter of 2017 and a record low of 43.10 Index Points in the first quarter of 1971.
Productivity in the United Kingdom is expected to be 102.00 Index Points by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Productivity in the United Kingdom to stand at 104.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the United Kingdom Productivity is projected to trend around 108.00 Index Points in 2020, according to our econometric models.