Services, value added per worker (constant 2010 US$) - Country Ranking - Africa

Definition: Value added per worker is a measure of labor productivity—value added per unit of input. Value added denotes the net output of a sector after adding up all outputs and subtracting intermediate inputs. Data are in constant 2010 U.S. dollars. Services corresponds to the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) tabulation categories G-P (revision 3) or tabulation categories G-U (revision 4), and includes wholesale and retail trade and restaurants and hotels; transport, storage, and communications; financing, insurance, real estate, and business services; and community, social and personal services.

Source: Derived using World Bank national accounts data and OECD National Accounts data files, and employment data from International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT database.

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

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Development Relevance: Labor productivity is used to assess a country's economic ability to create and sustain decent employment opportunities with fair and equitable remuneration. Productivity increases obtained through investment, trade, technological progress, or changes in work organization can increase social protection and reduce poverty, which in turn reduce vulnerable employment and working poverty. Productivity increases do not guarantee these improvements, but without them—and the economic growth they bring—improvements are highly unlikely. Please also see GDP per person employed (constant 2011 PPP $) [SL.GDP.PCAP.EM.KD], which is a key measure for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goal 8 of promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Limitations and Exceptions: For comparability of individual sectors labor productivity is estimated according to national accounts conventions. However, there are still significant limitations on the availability of reliable data. Information on consistent series of output is not easily available, especially in low- and middle-income countries, because the definition, coverage, and methodology are not always consistent across countries. For more details, see Agriculture, value added (constant 2010 US$) [NV.AGR.TOTL.KD], Industry, value added (constant 2010 US$) [NV.IND.TOTL.KD], and Services, etc., value added (constant 2010 US$) [NV.SRV.TOTL.KD].

Other Notes: Caution should be used for aggregates (population-weighted averages); world totals can be presented without a large economy such as USA.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Value added per worker is calculated by dividing value added of a sector by the number employed in the sector. Gross domestic product (GDP) represents the sum of value added by all producers. Value added is the value of the gross output of producers less the value of intermediate goods and services consumed in production, before accounting for consumption of fixed capital in production. The United Nations System of National Accounts calls for value added to be valued at either basic prices (excluding net taxes on products) or producer prices (including net taxes on products paid by producers but excluding sales or value added taxes). Both valuations exclude transport charges that are invoiced separately by producers. Value added by industry is normally measured at basic prices, while total GDP is measured at purchaser prices. Data on employment are modeled estimates by the International Labour Organization (ILO) ILOSTAT database. The concept of employment generally refers to people above a certain age who worked, or who held a job, during a reference period. Employment data include both full-time and part-time workers.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Base Period: 2010

Periodicity: Annual