The Assessment: Productivity and Competitiveness in British Manufacturing

This issue of the Oxford Review examines productivity and competitiveness in British manufac turing. The simplest and most widely used measure of productivity is output per head. From this definition sprout at once the horns of a dilemma for an economy facing unemployment on the present scale. For a given rate of expansion of output, the higher the rate of productivity growth, the greater the decline in employment or, at least, the smaller its growth. On the other hand, in an economy open to international competition, a high rate of productivity growth relative to that of other countries is the long-term key to achieving the favourable international competitive po sition necessary to sustain growth and a low level of unemployment.

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