How productively does each country deploy its workforce across agriculture, industry, and services? Each country uses its most recent available data. A lower gap means the sector punches closer to its weight.
What this measures
The Sector Efficiency Index compares what share of GDP a sector generates against what share of the workforce it employs. A perfectly efficient sector — one where workers are as productive as those in the rest of the economy — would have a gap of 1.0×. A gap of 8× means that every worker in that sector generates, on average, one-eighth the output of a worker in the rest of the economy.
Formula Gap = [(100 − Sector GDP%) / Sector GDP%] × [Sector Emp% / (100 − Sector Emp%)]
This is the ratio of non-sector productivity per worker to sector productivity per worker. It simplifies to: Gap = (Non-sector GDP share / Sector GDP share) × (Sector Emp share / Non-sector Emp share)
A gap below 1.0 means the sector is more productive per worker than the rest of the economy. A gap of 1.0 means perfectly equal productivity. A gap above 1.0 means the sector is less productive per worker than the rest of the economy.
Example — Georgia (Agriculture, 2022)
Agriculture GDP share: 6.6% — Agriculture employment share: 36.9%
Gap = (93.4 / 6.6) × (36.9 / 63.1) = 14.15 × 0.585 = 8.3×
Interpretation: the non-agricultural economy is 8.3× more productive per worker than Georgia's agricultural sector.
Sectors Agriculture includes agriculture, forestry, and fishing (World Bank indicator NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS for GDP; SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS for employment). Industry includes manufacturing, mining, construction, and utilities (NV.IND.TOTL.ZS; SL.IND.EMPL.ZS). Services includes all service activities (NV.SRV.TOTL.ZS; SL.SRV.EMPL.ZS).
Year selection
Each country uses its most recent year for which both GDP share and employment share data are available (typically 2022 or 2023, occasionally earlier). This keeps the index as current as possible — a country with 2023 data is not held back to match a country whose latest data is 2020. The data year used for each country is shown in the Year column of the table. Countries with fewer than 1% GDP share or fewer than 1% employment share in a sector are excluded from that sector's ranking to avoid division instability.
Interpretation note
A low efficiency gap does not mean a sector is thriving — it means it is proportional. A country where agriculture employs 5% of workers and produces 5% of GDP scores gap = 1.0×, whether it is wealthy or poor. The index measures internal structural balance, not absolute productivity or development level. Regional aggregates and non-country entities are excluded.
Why agriculture is the primary lens
This index is most analytically powerful when applied to agriculture. Farm work is physically gruelling, poorly paid, and offers little security — workers do not choose it for its appeal. When a large share of a country's workforce remains in agriculture despite the sector generating a small fraction of national output, it signals a genuine structural trap: people who cannot find more productive opportunities elsewhere. A high agricultural efficiency gap is therefore a clean indicator of underdevelopment, labour misallocation, and unrealised economic potential.
Services tell a different story. A country where the service sector employs more people than its GDP share alone would justify is not necessarily inefficient — it may simply reflect that service work is desirable. Office jobs, public sector roles, retail, healthcare, and education offer stable hours, lower physical risk, and often higher social status. Workers actively seek these positions out. An oversized service workforce can indicate a labour market where people have real choices and choose comfort and security over raw productivity — which is a mark of development, not dysfunction. The efficiency gap for services should therefore be read with more nuance: it measures structural composition, not a straightforward verdict on waste or misallocation.
Sources
GDP shares: World Bank World Development Indicators, indicators NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS, NV.IND.TOTL.ZS, NV.SRV.TOTL.ZS.
Employment shares: World Bank WDI, indicators SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS, SL.IND.EMPL.ZS, SL.SRV.EMPL.ZS (ILO modeled estimates).
All data is stored locally — no live API calls at runtime.