9
Fig. 5: Average Labour Compensation, Labour Productivity and Unit Labour Cost, Manufacturing
Korea (US=100)
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
125%
150%
175%
200%
225%
250%
198019811982198319841985198619871988198919901991199219931994199519961997199819992000200120022003
Labour Productivity
Unit Labour Cost
Relative Labour Cost
Nominal Exchange Rate
Index to US$ (1980=100)
Fig. 6: Labour Compensation, Labour Productivity and Unit Labour Cost, Manufacturing,
Mexico (US=100)
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
125%
150%
175%
200%
225%
250%
198019811982198319841985198619871988198919901991199219931994199519961997199819992000200120022003
Labour Productivity
Unit Labour Cost
Relative Labour Cost
10
The development of the relative levels of labour compensation is generally strongly related to
the nominal exchange rate. For example, the nominal exchange rate of the EU-15 countries
in Figure
1, representing the pre-2004 membership of the European Union, shows a strong depreciation of the
European currencies to the US dollars during the first half of the 1980s, which goes together with a
rapid decline in labour compensation and ULC in EU manufacturing relative to the United States.
During the mid 1980s the rapid
depreciation of the US dollar, worsened the competitive position of
European countries. Despite much higher income taxes and social security contributions,
relative
labour cost in the EU-15 mostly remained below the U.S. level until the mid 1990s. However, as
labour productivity also remained below the U.S. level by between 15 and 20%-points, unit labour
cost remained above the U.S. level for most of the period. Hence it was not so much high labour cost,
but lower productivity that has threatened the competitive position of the EU-15 until
the end of the
1990s.
Since the mid-1990s, and in particular since 2000, the manufacturing productivity gap
between EU-15 and the United States has widened. Due to the rather strong depreciation of most
European currencies (and since 1999 also the euro)
relative to the US dollar, the lower compensation
levels in terms US dollars more than offset Europe’s lower productivity levels. But since 2001 the
combined increase in the EU-U.S. manufacturing productivity gap and the appreciation of the euro,
has led to a significant worsening of the unit labour cost position in Europe which was about the same
as in the U.S. in 2002.
15
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