UK has widest productivity gap since 1993
UK OUTPUT per hour in 2011 was further below the average of major economies than at any time since 1993, according to figures released yesterday.
British output per worker trailed the G7 average by 21 per cent in 2011, the most recent year for which there is data, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) numbers showed. Output per hour was some 16 per cent worse than across the other major industrialised economies, the ONS said, the worst figure for 18 years.
And a flat picture for UK output in 2012, combined with a jobs boom, means that these figures are expected to worsen. “Certainly we can conclude that no growth in GDP, combined with booming employment, will lead to lower output per worker,” ITEM’s Nida Ali told City A.M.
But the “productivity conundrum” was not a UK-only phenomenon, the ONS claimed – while the UK has trailed the US, Japan and Canada’s productivity growth since 2007, it has kept close to Germany and Italy. The ONS says this means what it calls the “productivity conundrum” is not unique to these isles.