The productivity of UK workers lagged behind that of rival advanced economies last year by the biggest gap since records began in 1991, official figures showed today.
A report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that by output per hour worked, the average performance of the G7 group of advanced economies was 20% ahead of that of the UK.
The figures showed that France, Germany and the US were 32-33% more productive than the UK. It means that it would take a UK worker four hours to produce the same work done by a German worker in three hours.
Italy was 10% more productive than the UK and Canada was ahead by 4% while Japan was 15% behind.
ONS chief economist Joe Grice said: "These figures show UK productivity continues to lag behind other developed economies.
"Since the economic downturn productivity growth has slowed in most developed countries, but by more in the UK than the average."
Productivity is a key measure because improving it is seen as the only way in a modern economy of creating a sustained rise in living standards.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney, who has expressed his frustration at the failure of productivity to improve, said earlier this year: "Productivity growth - doing more with less - is the key determinant of income growth."
Ministers have recognised that Britain lags behind in this area and launched a plan to try to improve productivity in the summer.
The ONS said output per hour grew modestly across the G7 as a whole in 2014 but a little more slowly in the UK.
It was lower in all the countries than would have been the case had pre-downturn trends continued since 2007, with this "productivity gap" at 18% for the UK compared with about 7% for the rest of the G7.
TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Without a step change in productivity growth, the UK economy will struggle to deliver secure jobs and higher living standards.
"We need a better economic plan focused on higher public investment in modern infrastructure and workforce skills. A new round of severe public service cuts and pay freezes will keep the UK in the slow lane."
Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "On the positive side, UK productivity does appear to be now seeing some much-needed improvement.
"A recent loss of momentum in the labour market may well be a sign that UK productivity is now seeing genuine improvement.
"With earnings growth stronger and recruitment difficulties building in some sectors, UK companies may well now be really stepping up their efforts to lift productivity by getting more out of their existing workers and also stepping up investment."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel