Background:

This article calculates labor productivity on the highest disaggregated level possible for 150 industrial activities in 28 countries in different geographical areas and degrees of development for recent periods. It seeks to respond to two key questions: Is there a structural bonus in the growth of labor productivity in industry on a global scale?, and if this is indeed the case, in which countries or sectors does this occur?

Methods:

Through a shift-share type technique used by other similar empirical studies, the evolution of the indicator is broken down in structural effects of the relocation of employment and in an intrinsic component associated with technological and organizational change within each branch of activity.

Results:

The main result is to confirm the absence of an aggregated structural bonus in the growth of labor productivity in industry on a global level. When structural effects have a significant weight in the evolution of the indicator, this appears to be related to the development of backward structures or with highly specialized productive patterns. Furthermore, the statistical evidence indicates greater international dynamism in terms of the efficiency of chemical and automotive industry activities.

Conclusions:

Innovation and the emergence of new sectors have triggered a structural transformation whose possibilities have been partially blocked, especially in developing countries, both because of the scarce diffusion of innovations and the inability of the most dynamic sectors to increase their participation in total employment.