Industry productivity maintains stability in the 2nd semester

An important industry indicator — which measures the productivity of hours worked — remained almost stable in the second quarter of this year, varying negatively by 0.3% in relation to the first quarter. Data released by the Productivity in Industry survey, from the National Confederation of Industry, indicate that the growth of the variables that make up the index was similar: while production increased by 0.9%, hours worked grew by 1.3% in the period.

Despite the slight drop recorded, the Industrial Policy manager at the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), Samantha Cunha, maintains expectations regarding growth.

“When we look at the first quarter of the year, this indicator had shown a drop of 1.4%, interrupting an upward trend that we had observed for a few quarters, and when we look at the variation in production and hours worked , we have hours worked growing at a slower rate while production continues at a high rate. So we expect this productivity to maintain its growth rate.”

Internal demand and new hires

For three quarters, domestic demand for manufactured goods has maintained an upward trend, this is an indication that the national industry should continue to grow, assesses the CNI manager.

“A job market that is heated, workers being hired, hours worked should continue to accommodate, when we have demand for manufactured goods growing, partly being met by imports, so it is a scenario that favors an increase in production.”

Another positive result comes with the 0.4% increase in the number of workers in this second quarter — it is the best result for the indicator in the last two years.

Measures that should help growth

Other advances, in the assessment of the CNI manager, should reduce the Brazil Cost and improve the business environment, thanks to government policies to advance the national industry:

“The Accelerated Depreciation Law, which allows the modernization of the Brazilian industrial park, was recently regulated. Furthermore, we have the Mais Produção plan, which centralizes the resources of Nova Indústria Brasil, which is the new Brazilian industrial policy. There is the Most Innovative and Productive Industry axis, which also helps companies make investments in innovation.”

The publication Productivity in Industry follows the evolution of the competitiveness of Brazilian industry in relation to the main commercial partners, focusing on the labor productivity indicator — considered a determinant of competitiveness.