Productivity in Southeast Asia has been nearly stagnant over the last decade, with workers producing only a seventh of the wealth compared with their counterparts in developed economies, a UN agency said yesterday.
Productivity in Southeast Asia and the Pacific rose at an annual average of only 1.6 percent between 1996 and last year, compared with East Asia, where workers now produce twice as much as they did 10 years ago -- the fastest rise in the world, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said.
Each worker in the region produced US$9,419 last year, or 3.5 percent more than in 2005, but just slightly higher than US$8,068 10 years ago, said the report, Key Indicators of the Labor Market.
Unemployment was higher than before the Asian economic crisis of 1997, the ILO said, stressing the importance to find the right balance between productivity and increasing employment.
In East Asia, each worker produced US$12,591 in wealth last year, up from US$6,347 in 1996.
"Development in Southeast Asia and the Pacific has been less impressive than East Asia," the report said. "Nevertheless, the region has profited from the economic boom in China and India and the good economic performance of most developed economies in recent years."
In South Asia, productivity was eight times less than in rich countries, the report said. The good news was there were less poor Asian workers.
"The Asian regions saw a substantial reduction in the number of working women and men living on less than US$1 a day," the report said, adding that the number of working poor decreased by as many as 148 million between 1996 and last year, representing a drop of nearly 50 percent.
In contrast, sub-Saharan Africa's weak economic performance resulted in an increase of 24 million in the number of working poor.
The productivity figure is found by dividing the country's GDP by the number of people employed. The UN report is based on last year's figures for many countries, or the most recent available.
AMERICANS REIGN
The report also said American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and that they produce more per person.
They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, but the US "leads the world in labor productivity."
Each US worker produces US$63,885 in wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries. Ireland came in second at US$55,986, ahead of Luxembourg (US$55,641), Belgium (US$55,235) and France (US$54,609).
Only part of US productivity growth, which has outpaced that of many other developed economies, could be explained by the longer hours, the ILO said.
The US also beat all 27 nations in the EU, Japan and Switzerland in the amount of wealth created per hour of work.
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