Productivity in companies is a fundamental factor when it comes to making the business profitable. Those companies that have dedicated a greater investment to new technologies and the formation of human capital are the ones that come out better and contribute more money to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for each hour of work.
Ireland is the country where an hour of work contributes the most to GDP, with 109.5 dollars (92 euros), according to data for the year 2019 published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). They are followed by Norway, with a contribution of 93.2 dollars (78.4 euros) per hour, and France, where productivity per hour stands at 77.2 dollars (65 euros).
At the bottom of the classification is Mexico, where an average hour of work contributes 22.2 dollars (18.7 euros) to the economy, practically five times less than in Ireland. Chile and Portugal, with 30.2 dollars (25.5 euros) and 44.6 dollars (37.6 euros) per hour, accompany Mexico as the least productive OECD countries. For its part, Spain is in the ninth position in the ranking, with a contribution to GDP of 58.1 dollars (49 euros) for one hour of work.
To measure GDP per working hour, the OECD analyzes the global number of hours worked by all employees involved in the production process. When other variants intervene, it is not a strictly accurate method, since it only partially reflects the level of skills or the efficiency of the workers. Among the influencing factors are technical and technological advances, economies of scale, or the presence of intermediate goods, among others.
The arrival of teleworking derived from the global coronavirus pandemic has surely modified this ranking in 2020 and 2021, apart from the destruction of jobs and the closure of numerous companies. In this sense, the need to automate many processes and invest in training for workers has become more important, with the aim of increasing productivity in the time spent at work.
