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Essay On New Zealand

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The OECD Economic Surveys: New Zealand (2017) indicated that New Zealanders enjoy comparatively high living standards, and economic growth remains strong even compared with the highest-performing OECD countries. However, there are long-term challenges from low growth in productivity, which is well below the leading OECD countries; living standards; and social well-being. According to OECD data on labour productivity and utilization (OECD, 2107a), GDP per capita can be broken down into growth in labour productivity and changes in the extent of labour utilization. Labour productivity growth is a key dimension of economic performance and an essential driver of changes in living standards. New Zealand has a growth rate of 0.6, which gives it …show more content…

According to Rasmussen (2009), labour productivity is influenced by employers and employees, their representatives or unions, and the government, who all have different aims in employment relations. These inter-related groups are the main actors in labour productivity. In order to improve labour productivity growth, all these groups are required to contribute. Also, the required contributions will have a range of impacts on the groups involved. It is important to determine the nature of these different impacts. Without full awareness of the impact on each group, improving labour productivity is like shooting in the dark, when what is needed is a very specific target. With an appropriate aim determined, it is much easier to determine drivers that are acceptable to all parties and can still improve productivity growth. This essay will present some of the major variables that limit labour productivity growth in New Zealand, and their impacts on each interested group. It will also provide some suggestions for improving labour productivity levels from each group’s perspective. As a first approach to improving labour productivity, we have to clearly recognize the factors that determine labour productivity growth. From a long-term viewpoint, the New Zealand Productivity Commission has categorized these factors into two different

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