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Workers have been tarred as lazy or inefficient and warned that wages will not rise until there is a lift in Australia's low productivity rate. But an increasing body of research suggests our shift from a manufacturing-based economy to one dominated by human-delivered services means we are not capturing the full impact of productivity created by jobs in health, education and caring.
"I think we've done a really bad job of talking about how we measure what productivity looks like," says Emeline Gaske, national secretary of the Australian Services Union, whose members work in community services.
"For our members, say, providing support to women escaping family violence: What does productivity look like, in that environment?" she asks.
Measuring the outcomes of complex questions like these is an increasingly important challenge for our economy.
Australia's productivity rate has been falling as our economy has become increasingly focused on producing services, such as health and education. That has been a problem in many economies, as Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock observed recently. "It's just much harder to find productivity improvements … Australia is in that situation as well. We're not alone. But it doesn't mean that we shouldn't be trying to do something about it," she said.
The Productivity Commission has been vocal about the need to boost productivity so workers can earn more and enjoy higher living standards. Reports have blamed weak business investment, called for increases in taxes on powerful firms that dominate sectors so that other more competitive businesses might see tax cuts, and to reduce regulation on business.
Experts say because our economy has shifted from making things to intellectual labour and human services, we need to change how we measure productivity.
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Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-19/how-do-you-measure-productivity/107164704
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