--- canonical_url: "https://csls.ca/research/a-detailed-analysis-of-canadas-post-2000-productivity-performance-and-pandemic-era-productivity-slowdown/" title: "A Detailed Analysis of Canada’s Post-2000 Productivity Performance and Pandemic-Era Productivity Slowdown" author: name: "CSLS" url: "https://csls.ca/author/cslc/" date_published: "2026-07-01T11:29:38+00:00" date_modified: "2026-07-07T07:29:41+00:00" post_type: "research" summary: "" post_tag: - "Canada" - "growth accounting" - "labour productivity" - "OECD" - "pandemic" - "post-2000" - "productivity slowdown" - "within-sector productivity" country_focus: - "Canada" province_region: - "National" research_theme: - "Productivity and Economic Measurement" featured_image: "https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/old-reports_hero_banner_bg.webp" status: "publish" --- # A Detailed Analysis of Canada’s Post-2000 Productivity Performance and Pandemic-Era Productivity Slowdown Canonical URL: https://csls.ca/research/a-detailed-analysis-of-canadas-post-2000-productivity-performance-and-pandemic-era-productivity-slowdown/ # A Detailed Analysis of Canada’s Post-2000 Productivity Performance and Pandemic-Era Productivity Slowdown [Download full PDF report](https://csls.ca/pdf/csls2023-11-1.pdf) Cite this report × Cite this report as: Haun, Chris. 2023. “A Detailed Analysis of Canada’s Post-2000 Productivity Performance and Pandemic-Era Productivity Slowdown.” CSLS Research Report 2023-11. Ottawa: Centre for the Study of Living Standards. https://csls.ca/research/a-detailed-analysis-of-canadas-post-2000-productivity-performance-and-pandemic-era-productivity-slowdown/ ## Author: - Chris Haun Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) ## Report 2023-11 December 2023 97 pages ## Related research [Measuring the Appropriate Outcomes for Better Decision-Making: A Framework to Guide the Analysis of Health Policy Matthew Calver March 2016 | Report 2016-03 | 132 pages](https://csls.ca/research/measuring-the-appropriate-outcomes-for-better-decision-making-a-framework-to-guide-the-analysis-of-health-policy-2016-03/) [Living Standards Domain of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing Andrew Sharpe, Christopher Ross November 2011 | Report 2011-17 | 124 pages](https://csls.ca/research/living-standards-domain-of-the-canadian-index-of-wellbeing-2011-17/) [Productivity: Key to Economic Success Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) March 1998 | Report 1998-01 | 99 pages](https://csls.ca/research/productivity-key-to-economic-success/) [Productivity Trends: A Canada-U.S. Comparison Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) January 1999 | Report 1999-01 | 6 pages](https://csls.ca/research/productivity-trends-a-canada-u-s-comparison/) [New Estimates of Manufacturing Productivity Growth for Canada and the United States Andrew Sharpe March 1999 | Report 1999-02 | 21 pages](https://csls.ca/research/new-estimates-of-manufacturing-productivity-growth-for-canada-and-the-united-states/) [Apprenticeship in Canada: A Training System Under Siege? 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Work by many productivity researchers, including those at the Centre, evinces a second step-wise reduction in the annual growth rate of labour productivity following the year 2000, resembling the substantial slowdown observed in the 1970s. This report serves to both contextualize Canada’s productivity performance and to identify the sources of the slowdown, leveraging recent Statistics Canada and OECD data to provide stylized facts on the post-2000 productivity slowdown in the country. Through comparisons with the United States and other peer countries in the OECD, we characterize Canada’s productivity performance as relatively poor but hardly exceptional. We also identify a substantial differences in the size of the Canada-U.S. productivity gap depending on the aggregate chosen. Moreover, by utilizing the CSLS’s own decomposition framework as well as Statistics Canada growth accounting estimates, we find that a) the post-2000 slowdown has been driven primarily by trends in withinsector productivity and b) the slowdown reflects broad deterioration in all three primary sources of growth. Ultimately, given the persistent challenges facing the Canadian economy like enduring supply chain constraints and fading investment (particularly in ICT) we frame the path back to 1% annual productivity growth as a narrow one. La croissance de la productivité du travail au Canada a considérablement diminué par rapport à la période d’avant 2000, passant de 1,74 % par année entre 1973 et 2000 à une moyenne de 0,86 % par année au cours des deux dernières décennies. Les travaux de nombreux chercheurs en productivité, y compris ceux du Centre, mettent en évidence une seconde réduction par paliers du taux de croissance annuel de la productivité du travail après l’an 2000, semblable au ralentissement marqué observé dans les années 1970. Ce rapport vise à la fois à mettre en contexte la performance du Canada en matière de productivité et à cerner les sources du ralentissement, en s’appuyant sur des données récentes de Statistique Canada et de l’OCDE pour dégager des faits stylisés sur le ralentissement de la productivité après 2000 au pays. Au moyen de comparaisons avec les États-Unis et d’autres pays comparables de l’OCDE, nous qualifions la performance du Canada en matière de productivité de relativement faible, mais guère exceptionnelle. Nous relevons également des différences substantielles dans l’ampleur de l’écart de productivité Canada-États-Unis selon l’agrégat retenu. De plus, en utilisant le propre cadre de décomposition du CSLS ainsi que les estimations de comptabilité de la croissance de Statistique Canada, nous constatons que a) le ralentissement post-2000 a été principalement attribuable aux tendances de la productivité intrasectorielle et b) le ralentissement reflète une détérioration généralisée des trois principales sources de croissance. En définitive, étant donné les difficultés persistantes auxquelles fait face l’économie canadienne, telles que les contraintes durables des chaînes d’approvisionnement et l’affaiblissement de l’investissement (notamment dans les TIC), nous présentons le retour à une croissance annuelle de la productivité de 1 % comme une voie étroite. [Download full PDF report](https://csls.ca/pdf/csls2023-11-1.pdf)