In a report released by the Office of National Statistics, entitled International Comparisons of Productivity, it was revealed that hourly output in the UK was 16% below the other major economies of the World and that output per worker was 19% less then other industrialised economies. Furthermore, output actually fell in 2012 compared with 2011. Bullet point statistics are below but we will be covering this in more depth as the days unfold.
- Output per hour in the UK was 16 percentage points below the average for the rest of the major industrialised economies in 2012, the widest productivity gap since 1994. On an output per worker basis, UK productivity was 19 percentage points below the average for the rest of the G7 in 2012.
- UK output per hour and output per worker fell in 2012 compared with 2011. By contrast, these measures both increased in 2012 on average across the rest of the G7.
- In 2012 UK output per hour was 2 percentage points below its level in the pre-recession year of 2007, and 15 percentage points below the counterfactual level had productivity grown at its average rate before the recession.
- This compares with a productivity gap in 2012 of around 5 percentage points for the rest of the G7.