Labour continued to decline as share of the economy in 2023
The labour income share fell in 2023 as businesses' operating profit grew faster than income from labour. This relates to the labour income share for the market sector: the overall economy except for public administration, education, health and social work, real estate activities, mining and quarrying and financial and insurance activities. The labour income share had already fallen in 2022, as profits also rose faster than income from labour.
| Jaar | Market sector (%) | Market sector trend (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 81.4 | 80.7 |
| 1996 | 81.2 | 80.4 |
| 1997 | 79.3 | 80.1 |
| 1998 | 77.9 | 79.7 |
| 1999 | 78.9 | 79.4 |
| 2000 | 79.7 | 79.1 |
| 2001 | 78.1 | 78.8 |
| 2002 | 78.1 | 78.5 |
| 2003 | 79.0 | 78.2 |
| 2004 | 77.3 | 77.9 |
| 2005 | 75.2 | 77.6 |
| 2006 | 73.7 | 77.3 |
| 2007 | 72.5 | 77.0 |
| 2008 | 74.2 | 76.7 |
| 2009 | 77.7 | 76.4 |
| 2010 | 76.9 | 76.1 |
| 2011 | 77.1 | 75.8 |
| 2012 | 78.2 | 75.5 |
| 2013 | 78.0 | 75.2 |
| 2014 | 77.7 | 74.9 |
| 2015 | 74.8 | 74.5 |
| 2016 | 74.5 | 74.2 |
| 2017 | 73.7 | 73.9 |
| 2018 | 74.3 | 73.6 |
| 2019 | 73.5 | 73.3 |
| 2020 | 74.4 | 73.0 |
| 2021 | 70.5 | 72.7 |
| 2022* | 69.4 | 72.4 |
| 2023* | 69.0 | 72.1 |
| * provisional figures | ||
Different trends in different sectors
In 2022 and 2023, the labour income share declined in manufacturing, energy supply, construction, specialised business services and rental and other business services, among other sectors. However, it increased in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, information and communication, trade, and transportation and storage.Energy supply saw the sharpest decline in the labour income share in recent years. This was the result of a stronger increase in production value than in costs, which led to an increase in the profit ratio, the share of operating profit in gross value added.
| Bedrijfstak | 2023* (%) | 2022* (%) | 2021 (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Information and communication | 79.9 | 77.6 | 80.2 |
| Construction | 78.0 | 80.7 | 80.0 |
| Transport and storage | 76.6 | 67.7 | 76.6 |
| Specialised business services | 74.8 | 76.4 | 76.2 |
| Agriculture, forestry and fisheries | 72.0 | 70.7 | 81.4 |
| Rental and other business services | 69.1 | 72.4 | 74.2 |
| Trade | 61.7 | 60.4 | 58.2 |
| Manufacturing | 57.4 | 60.3 | 60.8 |
| Energy supply | 37.5 | 41.4 | 67.3 |
| * provisional figures | |||
Revision of the national accounts
The national accounts are revised periodically, a process that involves introducing new sources, methods and concepts. CBS does this to ensure that its picture of the Dutch economy is optimally aligned with all the underlying statistics, sources and international standards for compiling national accounts. This also affects the statistics used to calculate the labour income share.In recent years, operating profit has been adjusted upwards, while compensation of employees and net mixed income have seen a relatively smaller revision. As a result, the revised time series for the labour income share in the market sector shows a more pronounced trend than the old time series.
Sources
- StatLine - Labour income share, economic activity