The productivity of Canadian businesses increased by 0.7% in the first quarter, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.
The gain comes on the heels of a stronger 1.2% gain during the fourth quarter of 2009, but the pace of growth in GDP accelerated, to 1.8% from 1.4%.
In broad terms, productivity is a measure of the amount of wealth created from an hour of work. It is a key driver of improvement in a country's standard of living.
The majority of the rise in business productivity was attributed to goods-producing industries, which posted a 1.5% gain, their second consecutive quarterly increase, the data agency said. The largest increases were in manufacturing, a 2.3%, and construction, at 1%. It was the fourth consecutive quarterly increase in manufacturing.
Productivity in services-producing businesses advanced 0.2% in the first quarter after growing 0.9% in the preceding quarter.
Hours worked in Canadian businesses rose 1.1% in the first quarter, following two quarters of slight gains. That was the highest quarterly growth rate since the second quarter of 2004.
