Wellington, Mar 29 (IANS): New Zealand's labour productivity increased 2.2 per cent in the year ended March 2022, the largest growth since 2010, according to figures released by the national statistics department on Wednesday.

Stats NZ said the 2.2 per cent rise in labour productivity follows flat labour productivity in the year ended March 2021, reports Xinhua news agency.

These movements should be considered in the context of the different Covid-19 prevention measures that affected both years ended March 2021 and March 2022, respectively.

"The rise in labour productivity reflects output increasing at a greater rate than labour inputs over the March 2022 year," national accounts industry and production senior manager Ruvani Ratnayake said.

Labour productivity measures the quantity of goods and services (output) produced per hour of labour.

A rise was also seen in multifactor productivity, which rose 1.2 per cent.

Multifactor productivity captures the effects of unobserved inputs such as technological progress, efficiency gains, and economies of scale, Ratnayake said.

The coverage of these statistics only includes the measured sector, which is mainly market-sector industries.

This covers approximately three-quarters of New Zealand's economy, he said, adding predominantly non-market service industries like education and healthcare are not included within the measured sector.