Producing hours worked for the SNA in order to measure productivity: The Canadian experience

Abstract

To measure productivity accurately, the volume of work should correspond as closely as possible to the production boundary defined by the System of National Accounts. In practice, there is no single source in Canada to estimate a labour input that corresponds entirely to this frontier, both conceptually and with respect to coverage. Canadian data on hours worked are, therefore, obtained by combining the results of several surveys of establishments and households, supplemented by the results of the five-year censuses and administrative data. One advantage of our methodology comes from the fact that our SNA labour data at the aggregate level remained consistent and reconcilable with the Labour Force Survey results, the seminal survey of the Canadian labour market. The aim of this paper is to describe the actual methodology used in Statistics Canada to estimate annual hours worked by industry and province in view to be consistent with the System of National Accounts.