In an interview, SMU School of Economics Associate Dean (Faculty Research) and Professor of Economics Hoon Hian Teck said that for a sustained rise in the standard of living, there is a need to keep an eye on GDP per worker in the long term. Nevertheless, labour productivity gains cannot be expected to be the same as before, particularly as Singapore's economy has moved away from a manufacturing focus. He said that one of the reasons average labour productivity has come down is because manufacturing traditionally has higher productivity growth, and the share of the labour force employed in manufacturing has shrunk over the last two decades. Furthermore, the global economy has been underperforming since the 2008 financial crisis. Therefore, “part of the reason productivity numbers have not been showing up is because the developed countries, to whom we mainly sell our products, have been unwell”, said Prof Hoon.