Productivity grows with no employment reduction and with increase in salaries
O Estado de São Paulo - 04/07/2008
The work productivity in the Brazilian industry lives what economists call a virtuous cycle of growth. The cicle began in 2004 and is accelerating. Last year, the production per worker in the plants grew 4.2%, almost the double of the rate reached in 2006 (2.5%). This performance reflects the increase of the companies' investments in machinery and equipment to expand their production. Stimulated by the expansion of 6% in the industrial production, the evolution of the efficiency in the plants is considered virtuous because it happened after a growth of 2.2% in employment and 1.8% in paid work hours. That is, productivity increased without mass lay offs, as it occurred in the past. The average labor remuneration showed 3.1% real increase. The gain was smaller than that provided by the advance of productivity, which signals that the salary increases are being given by the industry without pressures on inflation. These figures are results of a survey made by the Institute of Studies for the Development of the Industry (Iedi) based on IBGE's data. They show a very different picture compared to the one observed between mid 1990's and 2003, when the productivity increase was obtained through employment reduction. "The companies became more efficient and are now distributing their profits to their workers, which is very good because any income increase fuels the expansion of the domestic demand", affirms Iedi's consultant economist, Júlio Sergio Gomes de Almeida. According to him, the maturation of investments in machinery and equipment has extended the capacity of production in order to meet the demand without inflationary pressures. Iedi's survey shows that the number of sectors with simultaneous increase in production, paid hours, and employment grew last year. From a total of 18 surveyed sectors, eight showed virtuous growth of productivity, while, in 2006, they were only five. In this group we have the sector of machinery and equipment, which had the biggest productivity leap, 10.6% Production went up 17.7%, while the number of hired workers grew 6.9% and paid hours increased 6.5%.