Construction Productivity
Construction Productivity (21239) measures how efficiently the construction industry combines labour and capital: the annual change in the industry’s output beyond what growth in hours worked and capital services alone would produce. Higher readings mean faster efficiency gains. It belongs to the Employment & GDP family (21230) and is read in its own right.
The construction industry builds the dwellings that the pipeline nodes of the 21500 series track, and its efficiency is one of the influences on what each dwelling costs to build. Its market-sector counterpart is Multifactor Productivity (21237).
The measure is annual, by financial year, and covers the whole construction industry: residential building, non-residential building, engineering construction and construction services. It does not isolate house building. The 2011–2025 baseline holds 15 annual observations, below the platform’s minimum for a baseline, so the reading carries more uncertainty than a quarterly one. Its record of 35 years is long enough for an empirical position. Construction productivity growth is volatile from year to year: its baseline standard deviation is 3.93 points, against 0.88 for the market sector. The ABS revises the whole history at each annual release. Each year is dated to the June quarter in which it ends; the 2025-26 figure is due about February 2027.
Primary metric: Node Z-Score (Z21239)
Metric typology: single-series Z-score of an annual growth rate. Labour productivity, which moves closely with multifactor productivity in this industry (correlation 0.965 in annual growth since 1990-91), is shown as context.
| Input | Source | Frequency | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multifactor productivity, Construction (Division E), gross value added based, hours worked basis, index | ABS Estimates of Industry Multifactor Productivity (5260.0.55.002), Table 1 | Annual (financial year) | 1989-90 to 2024-25 (growth from 1990-91) |
| Labour productivity, Construction (Division E), hours worked basis, index (context) | ABS Estimates of Industry Multifactor Productivity (5260.0.55.002), Table 6 | Annual (financial year) | 1989-90 to 2024-25 |
Tier-1 sovereign statistical release. No commercial data provider dependency exists within this node.
The chart shows the node’s reading for each financial year, dated to 30 June of the year it ends, measured against the 2011–2025 baseline.
The 2024-25 reading, −0.5400σ, ranks 14.7 against 35 years and sits inside the normal range of −0.8074σ to +1.1488σ. The highest ranked reading was +4.1951σ in 2001-02, and the lowest −3.6954σ in 2000-01. Each point is a financial year, labelled by the year in which it ends (2025 = 2024-25). The fall in 2000-01 and the rebound in 2001-02 coincide with the pull-forward of building work ahead of the GST in July 2000.
Show the data
| At 30 June | Reading | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | −0.1494σ | Ranked |
| 1992 | −0.0994σ | Ranked |
| 1993 | +0.0689σ | Ranked |
| 1994 | +0.3399σ | Ranked |
| 1995 | −0.2894σ | Ranked |
| 1996 | +0.2411σ | Ranked |
| 1997 | −0.0930σ | Ranked |
| 1998 | +1.7792σ | Ranked |
| 1999 | +1.0987σ | Ranked |
| 2000 | +0.2556σ | Ranked |
| 2001 | −3.6954σ | Ranked |
| 2002 | +4.1951σ | Ranked |
| 2003 | +0.6795σ | Ranked |
| 2004 | +0.3719σ | Ranked |
| 2005 | +0.3407σ | Ranked |
| 2006 | +0.3193σ | Ranked |
| 2007 | −0.7782σ | Ranked |
| 2008 | −0.1603σ | Ranked |
| 2009 | +0.3946σ | Ranked |
| 2010 | +0.0792σ | Ranked |
| 2011 | −0.4937σ | Ranked |
| 2012 | +2.4451σ | Ranked |
| 2013 | +1.0285σ | Ranked |
| 2014 | +1.1822σ | Ranked |
| 2015 | −1.5993σ | Ranked |
| 2016 | −0.8268σ | Ranked |
| 2017 | −0.5291σ | Ranked |
| 2018 | +0.6767σ | Ranked |
| 2019 | −0.8849σ | Ranked |
| 2020 | −0.3085σ | Ranked |
| 2021 | +0.1385σ | Ranked |
| 2022 | −0.0442σ | Ranked |
| 2023 | −0.3695σ | Ranked |
| 2024 | +0.1249σ | Ranked |
| 2025 | −0.5400σ | Ranked |
The levels show what the growth readings add up to. Construction multifactor productivity peaked in 2013-14, and it has declined in each of the seven years to 2024-25. In 2024-25 it stood 21.5% below its 2013-14 peak and 7.5% below its 1989-90 level. Labour productivity rose 13.9% over the same period while multifactor productivity fell, so the gain in output per hour worked came from more capital per hour, not from using labour and capital more efficiently.
Construction industry, hours worked basis, financial years 1989-90 to 2024-25. Gold: multifactor productivity. Slate: labour productivity (output per hour worked).
At −0.5400σ (2024-25), construction multifactor productivity fell 2.78%, against a 2010-11 to 2024-25 average of −0.66% a year. Position. 14.7, ranked against 35 years since 1990-91.
The reading is the lowest since 2018-19, when productivity fell 4.13%, and the seventh consecutive annual decline. The Z-score is moderate because the baseline itself records a falling trend and wide swings from year to year; the run of declines is the clearer signal. Since 1994-95, multifactor productivity across the market sector has risen 22.0%, while in construction it has fallen 3.9%.
The other nodes of the Employment & GDP family. Only Labour Market Tightness (21231) and Growth per Person (21235) compose into Employment & GDP (21230); the others are read in their own right.
- The input is sourced from a Tier-1 sovereign statistical release (ABS)
- The Z-score of −0.5400σ (2024-25) is derived directly from the certified input against the 2010-11 to 2024-25 baseline, not manually entered or estimated
- The baseline holds 15 annual observations, below the platform minimum; this is disclosed
- The position is an empirical percentile rank against 35 years
- No commercial data provider dependency exists within this node
