Productivity increases offering capacity
Valor Econômico
In the 12 months ended in April, the processing industry installed in Brazil was able to increase the internal offer of goods in 2.4% (compared to the 12 preceding months) with a lesser number of hours being paid and less people working. That is, the industry came out of the crisis with a productive capacity superior to that there was in the pre-crisis period. In accordance with the simplest calculation possible, the productivity in the industry grew 4.7% in the 12 months ended in April.
According to the Monthly Industrial Survey (PIM) made by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), the industrial production in the processing industry grew 2.38% (12 months until April compared to the 12 preceding months), while the total number of hours paid shrank 2.22% in the same comparison according to the Monthly Industrial Survey for Employment and Salary (Pimes), also made by the IBGE. Per sector, productivity improved in 12 of the 16 segments analyzed. Should we consider only the first four months of the year, the data are almost absurd - the increase of the productivity in the industry stays on average in 15%.
To recover the productivity after intense falls in production is easy, because there is always idle capacity, little used machines, employees returning to produce full-time and even new hires. The data of the first four months should be, therefore, used with caution. The data of 12 months is important, however, because it indicates the recovery of the production of the Brazilian industry is taking place with fewer employees. Since things such as miracles do not exist, that happened in the industry either because of adjustments made to the Assembly line, or because new machinery (investment) was incorporated to the production or because it outsourced part of the production. Anyhow, the industry came out of the crisis more efficiently and with greater productive capacity.
Even considering this calculation of productivity in the work in the industry is fairly simplified (because it merely crosses volume of production with paid hours), it cannot be disregarded as it signals there is a factor of production - the work - that is still being underused. As the industry has not resumed the level of employment it had in the period prior to the crisis, there is still the possibility of making new hires to increase its productive capacity. This type of increase in productivity (with lesser hours worked) helps understand why in some sector the peak of the industrial production has already been achieved or even exceeded while the Level of Use of the Installed Capacity (Nuci) has not yet been reached, as in the industry of foods, chemicals, footwear and the production of cars.
Other data that explains the greater elasticity of the Nuci are the recent disbursements of the BNDES to the industry. Last year they grew 66% and in the first three months of this year it grew another 22%, with some important marks: an increase of 460% in the textile industry; 500% in clothing, 200% in the footwear sector and 270% in furniture. Such growth is expressive for the still minute values, but it is growth in sectors subject to strong foreign competition and it signals the intention of resisting and, perhaps, recovering part of the market that is now served by imported goods.