Productivity – a measure of how much is produced by every worker. It is supposed to show how efficient we are as a nation. But according to official statistics, it takes a worker in Britain 5 days to do what a worker in France does in 4.
So how do we measure productivity and why does it matter? Productivity is one of the most important economic issues around. The reason is quite simple, the more each of us make, the more money we can be paid, the faster the economy will grow and the richer the country will be. Now, we can make more by simply working more hours, but the clever thing to do, is to work better, smarter and more productively. Then, we can make more, earn more and spend more, which invests the money back into the economy.
On average, to Britain’s £100 of product made per hour per worker, German and French workers make around £130’s worth. So this goes to explain why pay is generally lower in this country. We pay people less, because they make less.
Obviously, being outperformed is not the case across the board. There are some industries, such as manufacturing that would probably defy this statistic, but on the whole, how does this make Britain look compared to our productive counterparts?
One thing is clear, it certainly seems like there are a number of low productivity jobs in the UK right now and something needs to be done to improve it 🙂
Source: BBC Radio 5 Live Wake Up To Money podcast