Britain lags behind the United States and France in the international league table of productivity and is a middle-ranking country within the G7 group of industrial nations, according to official UK data released today.Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that output per worker across the G7 - the UK, the US, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan - was almost 10% higher in 2005 than it was in Britain.
The average American worker produces a quarter as much again as the average British worker, while a French worker produces 9% more.
By contrast, in Japan the average worker produces only 88% as much as a worker in the UK. Canada, Germany and Italy have levels of output per head similar to those in the UK.
Using an alternative measure of productivity - output per hour worked - France is the G7 country that performs best, the ONS figures showed.
French workers deliver 19% more output per hour than their British counterparts; German and American workers produce 15% and 16% more respectively.
Again, the improvement in UK performance during the 1990s ground to a halt in 2002.