Production and productivity
Production is the total output a business makes. Productivity is output per unit of input: how much each worker, machine or acre produces. A bakery in Barbados that bakes 1,200 loaves a day with 6 bakers has a productivity of 200 loaves per baker. Paper 1 asks how productivity is measured: outputs ÷ inputs.
By the end of this page you can
- Tell production and productivity apart
- Calculate productivity as outputs over inputs
- Name ways to raise labour productivity
- Explain why productivity matters
Goals tick themselves off as you try the activities below.
Photo: YeraC, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped, machine maker’s mark blurred, resized, JPEG q72.
Count the shirts, count the workers, divide: that is labour productivity.
How often it shows up in past papers
All papers9 of 23 papers
Last 52 of 5 · 2023–2026
Paper 1 counts come from our past-paper bank of CSEC Principles of Business Paper 1s. The last-5 row shows how often it came up in the five most recent papers.
Inside this topic
- Output and efficiencyLocked
- Raising productivityLocked
- Key termsLocked
- Test yourselfmarkedLocked
- Practise for real · 8 past questionsLocked