Despite the widespread impact of Covid-19 on the country in 2020, overall labour productivity increased by 14.1%, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
But the CSO noted very different outcomes for key sectors across the economy amid strict Covid-19 restrictions in its "Productivity in Ireland 2020" research.
ICT and Pharma in the foreign sector produced more output than ever before - growing by 18.2% - and adding hugely to productivity measures.
But labour productivity was down by 56% in Transport and by 9% in Accommodation and Food, two of the sectors most impacted by Covid-19.
The CSO said that many domestic sectors were either closed down or were operating in line with the tight Government restrictions resulting in mixed productivity outcomes in 2020.
For some sectors such as Construction, this resulted in employment declining faster than output, leading to positive productivity results which need to be carefully interpreted.
For other sectors, the fall in Gross Value Added (GVA) exceeded the labour reductions with negative productivity recorded.
In addition, the impact of the government employment wage subsidy scheme (EWSS) had a significant influence on these results," the CSO added.
