POST‐WAR TRENDS IN INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT, EMPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY
| Date | 01 February 1955 |
| Author | B. Weber |
| Published date | 01 February 1955 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1955.tb00728.x |
RECENT ECONOMIC TRENDS
POST-WAR TRENDS IN INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT, EMPLOYMENT
AND
PRODUCTIVITY
AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON
Tiiii purpose
of
this note
is
to
compare the movements of industrial
output. employment and productivity since
1948
in
a
number
of
European countries and the U.S.A. and
to
comment briefly on one
or
two points relating especially
to
Germany which emerge from the
comparisons. The post-war period is now long enough for
a
discussion
of
trends
to
become more meaningful and the raw material for such
a
discussion
on
an international basis
is
readily available in the
statistical publications
of
the United Nations.
The statistics used relate
to
the manufacturing. mining and quarry-
ing.
and
gas, water and electricity sectors
of
nine industrial countries
;
thcy exclude building. The employment indices relate as nearly as
possihlc to wage and salary earners in the same industries.’ The
productivity series are obtained by a simple division
of
the output
indices by the indices
of
employment. The basic data have been
rendered comparable.
as
far
as
possible, by the Research and Planning
Division
of
the Economic Commission
for
Europe but some inconsist-
encies
in
the
data inevitably remain. In addition, comparability is
inipaired
by
the uneven quality
of
the various national statistics and
thcre are
a
number
of
well-recognised conceptual difficulties which
cncumber international comparisons of any kind. In spite
of
these
drawbacks the data seem adequate for a simple analysis
of
the out-
standing trends.
Prodicclion
The indices
of
industrial production are set out in Table
I
and
are
shown
in
Fig.
1.
The immediate impressions obtained from inspection
of
Fig.
I
arc, on the one hand, the rapid rise of output
in
Western
Gemiany and Austria and. to a lesser extent, Italy and the Nether-
lands. and on the other. the considerably lower and more nearly
similar rates
of
advance in all the other countries.
I
Indices
of
industrial output and employment in Europe are taken from
the
h’rono~iiir
I~tclletitc
for
Europe,
E.C.E.,
Vol.
4,
Nr.
3,
Nov.
1952,
pp.
81-2;
and
the
is’rononiie
Survey
uf
Europe
in
1954
(Feb.
1955).
E.C.E..
pp.
I‘+l
and
204.
Industrial production in Belgium in
1937
from the
Monthly
l{i/llcfiri
n/
.Slufislics,
U.N.,
Dec.
1954,
p.
20.
Industrial production in the
(1.S.A.
is
conlined
lo
nianiifacturinp. and mining and
is
from the
Fedcrol
Iic6rrr.r
I{itllc.li~.
Feh.
1955,
p.
187.
Industrial cniploynient for
I948
-
54
lrurn
ihid.. p.
IY4,
and
for
1938
frolit
Uusi,ress
Slalislics.
19.51,
Swpplemetit
It,
(’
“..r*.t.ii
II)I
Citrreiif
Rirsiri,
.
n
57
To continue reading
Request your trial