While the impact of the pandemic on GDP and employment has been much discussed, there has been less light shone on its impact on the productivity of the economy. Here Josh Martin looks at some of the ways changes in the way we do business might affect productivity in the future.
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Statistics on the number of business creations and closures are important indicators of the health of the economy. However, the different measures of creation and closure can paint a complex picture. Josh Martin describes some new ways we’re measuring this important metric to support understanding of the longer-run impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.
Read more on Understanding the full business impact of the coronavirus pandemic
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has changed many elements of our everyday lives, including how we shop. The introduction of movement restrictions meant the closure of most physical shops, so many consumers have been doing their shopping from home instead. In May 2020, over a third of retail spending was online – the highest ever share. In this blog Josh Martin takes a closer look at the online retail sales data to understand this trend.
Read more on Shopping may never be the same again
Productivity has been a topic of great interest in recent years, especially because of the well-known ‘productivity puzzle’ – the historically weak productivity growth in the UK since the economic downturn in 2008.
But if that is a puzzle, here is another one – how do you measure the productivity of public services, like education or healthcare, when they are provided for free? Since 2005, ONS has developed suitable measures for over half of public services, but there is still much to do. In this blog Josh Martin explains how the ONS measures the productivity of public services.
Read more on The hardest part of productivity measurement