UK productivity growth is weakest since second world war, says ONS

As data shows 0.2% drop in output, two-thirds of leading UK economists say coalition austerity had been bad for the economy

David Cameron has presided over an economy with the weakest productivity record of any government since the second world war, the Office for National Statistics said as it revealed output per worker fell again in the final three months of 2014.

In a separate blow to the government, two-thirds of leading UK economists said they believed George Osborne’s austerity strategy had been bad for the economy

The ONS said productivity decreased by 0.2% in the third quarter of the financial year, leaving output per hour worked little changed on the previous year and slightly lower than in 2007, before the UK’s longest and deepest modern recession.

“These estimates show that the absence of productivity growth in the seven years since 2007 is unprecedented in the postwar period,” the ONS said.

The economy is dominating the third day of the general election campaign after 100 business leaders wrote to the Telegraph backing the government’s economic policies. George Osborne is due to make a speech this afternoon, while Boris Johnson is launching the Conservatives campaign in London and Samantha Cameron is campaigning at a school.

The ONS figures show that with workers producing less than they did in 2007, Britain’s productivity gap with its major economic rivals, such as the US, Germany and France, has widened.

Weak productivity has been the flipside to strong employment growth, since the increase in the number of people working has not been matched by the hourly output of goods and services they have produced.

Up until the global economic crisis, the efficiency of UK workers tended to increase by around 2-2.5% a year. Had that trend continued, productivity would have been 15% higher than it was before the recession.

An alternative measure of productivity, output per worker, showed some growth in 2014 as a result of employees working longer hours.

“This still isn’t great - productivity [growth] has still not even returned to its long-run average rate of about 2%, let alone recouped any of the shortfall relative to its pre-crisis trend,” said Vicky Redwood, UK economist at Capital Economics.

The ONS said that despite Britain’s poor productivity, businesses were keeping their costs in check by keeping a lid on their wage bills.

Labour is likely to use the latest data to make the case that higher employment is not leading to a pickup in wages and the sort of boost to living standards that would normally follow a recovery in the economy.

The Centre for Macroeconomics polled 50 economists, asking them whether they agreed that the government’s deficit-reduction strategy had had a positive impact on growth and employment. One third disagreed and a further third strongly disagreed. Only 15% agreed, with none strongly agreeing.

There was better news for the government from the latest snapshot of manufacturing from CIPS/Markit. This showed activity standing at 54.4 points in March, up from 54.1 points in February, its highest level since last August. Any reading above 50 indicates manufacturing is expanding rather than contracting.

Howard Archer, UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said: “This is a generally very reassuring survey, which indicates that the manufacturing sector is in decent shape despite latest hard data showing manufacturing output fell back 0.5% in January.”

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/01/uk-productivity-growth-is-weakest-since-wwii-says-ons

Georgie Porgy the coke head and Cameron the Loon just love to lie.

Lied about what excatly.
It seems the left just make things up as they go along they are so desperate.
Productivity growth is far removed from economic growth and there are many reasons why this could very well continue, even more so based on how they make such a mesaure, but then some left wing loons print anything without understanding them

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/quarterlybulletin/2014/qb14q201.pdf

I have never known such lefty bullshit as what is posted on this forum:evil:

Facts are bullshit are they Nicko? What you mean is, you don't like the truth rather than RW lies.

nicko wrote:I have never known such lefty bullshit as what is posted on this forum:evil:   

I would not concern yourselfr Nicko, for one, she does not even understand this and two it would be the same levels or even worse under labour hence why she has no comprehension as to why they are at these levels.

I just think it's a bit silly to blame everything on whichever Government is in power. Obviously, some things can be laid at their door, but this tendency for people to want to be "looked after" the whole time is ridiculous IMO. Businesses have to develop ways to keep up and adapt to changing economic times.

Raggamuffin wrote:I just think it's a bit silly to blame everything on whichever Government is in power. Obviously, some things can be laid at their door, but this tendency for people to want to be "looked after" the whole time is ridiculous IMO. Businesses have to develop ways to keep up and adapt to changing economic times.

Very good post and a very valid point.

Raggamuffin wrote:I just think it's a bit silly to blame everything on whichever Government is in power. Obviously, some things can be laid at their door, but this tendency for people to want to be "looked after" the whole time is ridiculous IMO. Businesses have to develop ways to keep up and adapt to changing economic times.

Sorry Rags but that is rubbish. The Government put in place things things to redress problems with the economy, that is their job. They can hardly take credit for things that go right is they can't take the flack for things that go wrong. Osborne has told us over and over how he has made the economy better, when the facts show he hasn't and we are on a knife edge. They shouldn't blow their trumpet with lies if they don't want to be shot down with the truth. It was a 'sin of omission' that Osborne very carefully ignored the fall in productivity in his budget. It was well noted by economists and it is one of the litmus paper tests of how well an economy is performing.

It is not rubbish what she said and it shows again you have no comprehension on this which has much to do with the set up of companies themselves

Raggamuffin wrote:I just think it's a bit silly to blame everything on whichever Government is in power. Obviously, some things can be laid at their door, but this tendency for people to want to be "looked after" the whole time is ridiculous IMO. Businesses have to develop ways to keep up and adapt to changing economic times.

It depends on what you mean by "looked after," Raggs. Nobody demands more looking after than wealthy corporations, right? Why does Big Oil hire so many lobbyists? Why do the Koch Brothers spend a $-billion to assure their RW candidates get elected? Why do automobile manufacturers spend billions to avoid pollution emissions limits? Why does BP Oil not want regulations, peering over their shoulder on their deep-water wells? They want to be "looked after," don't they?

We, the one-percenters, can't afford high-priced lobbyists, and so we speak up in forums and in the press. Would that they would pass an 'Equal-Access-to-Lobbyists' law, so we could all have one.