Labor Productivity in Russian Manufacturing Industries: Dynamics and International Comparisons

The article analyses labor productivity (per hour) dynamics of the Russian manufacturing sector in 1995-2008 and presents 2007 estimates of labor productivity levels for Russia and 9 countries in 13 manufacturing industries. The group of countries includes Russia, USA, Germany, France, CEE countries and China. In contrast to previous works, level comparisons are based on industrial PPPs (which gives more precise estimates), analysis deals with a wider country grouping and more detailed industry level. Russian manufacturing sector labor productivity is only 18% of US level (in 2007). Better situation is in metallurgy (51% of US level) and pulp and paper industry (36% of US level). The worst situation (4-11% of US level) is in wood products, chemical industry and machinery. Considerable productivity gaps are the evidence of technological weakness of Russian economy, but also it implies the possibility of catching up by means of technology borrowing. Labor productivity level analysis shows that Czech, Hungary, Latvia and the most developed industries of China manufacturing can be considered as perspective sources of technology borrowing for Russia.