Labour productivity in the education system is up, not by much, but it’s better than the economy overall

The Productivity Commission estimates labour productivity in education and training increased by 0.3 per cent increase in 2018-19, compared to an all-industries decline of 0.2 per cent.

The PC suggests productivity is both hard to measure, and improve in professional labour-intensive industries, like healthcare and education, where there are fewer gains to be made from compounding outcomes of automation.

This might explain the Commission’s finding, that labour productivity in professional, scientific and technical services was down 3.5 per cent.  Good-o, but the PC also reports the information, media and telecommunications category is up 4.3 per cent. Of course, journalism and comms don’t employ as many people as they used to – but who says HE will as on-line education expands.