Labor Productivity in the Regions of Eastern Russia and Northeastern China

Based on data from Federal State Statistics Service, the National Bureau of Statistics of China and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, an analysis of the dynamics and spatial differentiation of labor productivity in the regions of Russia and China was carried out. It was found that in most Russian regions labor productivity in the economy as a whole in 2022 was lower than the national value. Among the subjects with high values of the indicator, territories with a raw materials-based economic systems predominate. It was revealed that for 2017–2022 only in seven Russian regions, located mainly in the European part of the country, there was a decrease in the volume of added value per employee. All Far Eastern territories were characterized by positive dynamics of the indicator. Special attention is paid to the cross-country comparison and analysis of the level of labor productivity in neighboring Russian and Chinese regions involved in the processes of crossborder cooperation. The calculation results indicate that in 2017, labor productivity in the Chinese economy was lower than in the Russian one. However, in 2022, China, where this indicator grew rapidly in 2017–2022, surpassed Russia in production of gross value added per person employed in the economy. It was found that in 2022, labor productivity in the neighboring regions of China was significantly higher than in most regions of the East of the Russian Federation. It is shown that in Russia and China, as well as in most of the analyzed regions, labor productivity in the industrial sector is higher than in the economy as a whole.