I'm abstracting a bit more than I should really, because yeah the way I put it comes off as too close to just profit. But there are a bunch of ways to measure

I'm abstracting a bit more than I should really, because yeah the way I put it comes off as too close to just profit. But there are a bunch of ways to measure it, that generally comes down to some comparison of inputs vs outputs and those inputs and outputs have to be measurable in some way in aggregate. If you Google for "economic productivity" or "labor productivity" you can find better explanations of the details than I'm likely to give.