# Check out my buns: what productivity means — sources and method

Supplied by the site owner on 2 November 2026. Figures checked against stored source data on 2 November 2026. Builder checks, not independent analytical assurance.

## The bakery

Dan's bakery is a made-up teaching example, not a real business and not official figures. Five bakers work 40 hours a day in total and make 500 buns: 12.5 buns per hour worked. After a better mixer, a better layout and training, the same people and hours make 750 buns: 18.75 buns per hour, 50% more. The arithmetic is exact. The page's bakery example uses the same numbers.

## The closing statistic

"Between 1997 and 2024, UK output per hour rose by an estimated 40.7%."

- Source: ONS, *Component approach to measuring labour productivity, UK: 1997 to 2024*, published 17 September 2026. https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/productivitymeasures/methodologies/componentapproachtomeasuringlabourproductivityuk1997to2024
- ONS says these "are not official statistics". The same article gives 34.0% for the same years on the current official method.
- The UK Facts economy page leads with the current official series (ONS LZVB: about 32% from 1997 to 2025) and shows the 40.7% estimate beside it. The two methods and periods are never joined into one series.

## Limitations

In the wider economy, productivity is value added per hour, not a count of products. The film shows the routes extra value can take (pay, profit, prices, reinvestment); it does not measure how the UK's gains were actually shared.