UK manufacturing workers lead the world in productivity gains over the last five years

Posted on 28 Jan 2025 by The Manufacturer

The value added by manufacturing employees in the UK increased by almost £11,200 per worker between 2018 and 2023, a new analysis shows.

According to the findings by FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics for National Productivity Week, the gains seen in the UK were higher than in any other major manufacturing economy over the same period.

World Bank data shows that UK manufacturers delivered net output worth £224.2bn in 2023 after removing the cost of energy, materials, and other inputs. FourJaw’s analysis, which also draws on OECD workforce data, reveals this equated to £87,300 of added value for each of the UK’s 2.6 million manufacturing workers in 2023. This figure was 15% more than the £76,080 value-add per worker achieved five years earlier.

The UK’s productivity gains have elevated the value of per-worker manufacturing output above that of Germany (£84,890), South Korea (£74,480), and Japan (£60,860). These economies continue to produce more than the UK in absolute terms and previously outperformed the UK on per-worker productivity. Only US manufacturing workers, who delivered net output worth $167,000 each, produced more value more efficiently than their UK counterparts in 2023.

China’s manufacturers delivered net output worth £3.76tn in 2023, more than a quarter of the world’s £12.97tn total. Statista reports that 214 million people worked in China’s manufacturing sector in 2023, which gives the world’s biggest manufacturing economy a per-worker productivity level of £17,610.

Speaking about the findings of the analysis, Chris Iveson, CEO at FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics, said: “Many of the world’s major manufacturing economies still produce more value in absolute terms than the UK, but they need many more people to do so. Only US factory workers create more value more efficiently than those in the UK.”

“Our analysis shows that the value of productivity improvements achieved by UK manufacturing workers between 2018 and 2023 was better than those achieved in any other major manufacturing economy. But the reality is that they’ve only just scratched the surface of what is now possible on productivity.”

National Productivity Week, which started yesterday, is a campaign by the Productivity Institute to improve UK productivity. The Institute is hosting a series of events to help businesses increase productivity through people development, emerging technologies, and finance and investment deployment.

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