The productivity of public services has declined once more and is at 8.5% below pre-Covid levels as Labour gets ready to increase funding.
According to the official data, the state sector’s production as a percentage of inputs decreased by 1.2 percent in the three months ending in June as compared to the prior quarter.
Additionally, productivity data for 2022 has been revised down by the ONS, indicating that the recovery from the pandemic nosedive was not as rapid as initially believed.
The findings presented questions after Keir Starmer signed off a string of bumper pay deals immediately after taking office.
Then, last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a huge tax, borrowing, and spending package in the Budget, claiming it was the only way to stabilise public services.
The difference between output and inputs—the quantity of resources like personnel and operating expenses—is how the ONS calculates productivity in public services.
According to estimates, the level was 2.6% lower this year between April and June than it was in 2023.
In the last three months, productivity decreased by 1.2 percent as compared to January to March, which was unchanged from the previous quarter.
According to estimates, the measure is 8.5 percent lower than the three months of October through December 2019.
In 2022, as services were starting to recover from COVID-19, the yearly rate of productivity growth was reduced from 2.6% to merely 1 percent.
According to annualised quarterly estimates, productivity decreased by 0.3 percent from 2022 to 2023.
Separate estimates of the UK’s overall productivity, measured in output per hour worked, however, indicate a 2 percent rise over pre-Covid levels. That could imply that public sector performance is holding the private sector behind.
While stressing that the statistics were ‘volatile’, the ONS said the ‘recovery of public service productivity from the pandemic is taking longer than previously estimated’.
‘The coronavirus pandemic had a large impact on public services,’ the stats body said.
‘In 2020, inputs rose, reflecting the extra resources provided to public services to deal with the pandemic.
‘Conversely, output fell in 2020, as many services were delivered in a different way than in 2019, with additional costs and mandatory restrictions present for certain services.
‘Our quarterly estimates show a decline in productivity of 25.4 per cent from Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2019 to Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2020, and a recovery of 22.7 per cent from Quarter 2 2020 to Quarter 2 2024.
‘Productivity was 8.5 per cent lower in Quarter 2 2024 than in Quarter 4 2019.
‘This reflects changes in the severity of the cases being addressed by public services, as well as the delivery of these services.’
For labour to transfer the money to those who do nothing to the economy, those who create, cultivate, manufacture, produce, design, sell, transport, and so on are subject to increasing taxes.
Voting Labour is a right of passage. Once in a while, people believe it’s the right thing to vote for Labour, then they live to regret their decision and never vote for them again.
It seems that following a process or procedure is far more important than whether it works – complain and you then get your HR card marked for being ‘awkward.’
The NHS and other public services are the primary source of our issues. The issue is the management’s lack of responsibility and jobs-for-life attitude. There won’t be any improvement till it is resolved.
Sending in management “hit squads” to interview everyone in management positions, find out what they actually do, and ask them to defend their positions by providing proof of productivity is one strategy to address this.
It is recommended that individuals deemed unnecessary be let go, and those who remain be placed on fixed-term contracts that will only be extended in response to periodic independent performance evaluations.
Nothing will be resolved if public funds are transferred to management who lack competence.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 