SSDA assesses Britain’s productivity

Citation

(2006), "SSDA assesses Britain’s productivity", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 55 No. 3/4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm.2006.07955cab.001

SSDA assesses Britain’s productivity

A report by the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) has found that while Britain’s overall productivity is still well below that of the average of the Group of Seven leading industrial countries, this is largely due to substantial variations in performance between sectors.

The study, covering 16 countries, showed that Britain led the world in the manufacture of furniture, jewellery, musical instruments, toys and miscellaneous products and recycling and ranked second only to Canada in the manufacture of food and drink.

In transport, Britain ranked second only to the USA, while in agriculture, hunting forestry and fishing it ranked second to Japan. But much weaker performance emerged in other vital sectors of the economy. Most surprisingly, the financial services sector ranked only 14th, with productivity levels some 32 per cent worse than average, a figure that was worse only in Canada.