About this data

Source: Bank of England, A millennium of macroeconomic data for the UK (version 3.1); ONS, Labour productivity, UK: April to June 2026; ONS, Component approach to measuring labour productivity, UK: 1997 to 2024 (September 2026)

• Labour productivity is how much the economy produces for each hour worked: GDP divided by total hours worked.
• From 1997, the series is ONS's new measure of output per hour, published in September 2026, which takes hours from employers' payroll records. From 1971 to 1996, it follows ONS's previous measure, which uses hours from the Labour Force Survey, scaled to meet the new measure in 1997. Before 1971, it follows the Bank of England's historical estimates, scaled to meet ONS's figures in 1971. Estimates for earlier centuries are reconstructed from historical records, so they are much less certain than modern figures.
• The new measure shows faster growth since 2008 than the previous one; see the chart comparing the two measures. It currently runs to 2024.

This chart appears in Economic growth and productivity.