European Economy. Economic Papers. Germany's growth performance in the 1990's

Table 1.7: Labour Productivity (annual average growth)
D
(1)
F
I
UK
EUR
(2)
EU
(3)
US
JP
Based on Persons Employed
1971-2000
2.0
2.0
1.9
2.0
2.0
2.0
1.5
2.6
1991-2000
1.7
1.2
1.4
2.1
1.4
1.7
2.0
1.1
1991-1995
2.3
1.2
2.0
2.7
1.6
2.0
1.5
0.6
1996-2000
1.1
1.3
0.9
1.5
1.3
1.4
2.5
1.5
Based on Full-time Equivalents
1991-2000
2.3
1.5
1.6
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
1.8
n.a.
1991-1995
2.7
1.5
2.0
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
1.2
n.a
1996-2000
2.0
1.5
1.1
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
2.4
n.a
(1)
Data up to 1991 West Germany. For Germany, due top missing data period averages in the lower part of the table are
1992-2000, 1992-1995 and 1996-2000.
(2)
Euro-area excluding Germany, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain
(3)
EU excluding Germany, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain
Source : Commission services
Since, tautologically, labour input growth is the product of output growth and the labour
intensity of output growth, these results demonstrate quite clearly the German employment
problem. Employment growth has remained depressed ever since the re-unification boom
because of a sharp slowdown in output growth combined with a low and basically unchanged
labour intensity of output growth. This differs from the experience of other countries like
France where the significant improvement in the employment situation in the second half of
the 1990s was due to the rise in output growth coupled with an increase in the employment
intensity of growth.