In 2024 the average US worker will have generated about $171,000 in economic output, compared with $120,000 in the euro area (on purchasing-parity terms), $118,000 in the UK and $96,000 in Japan. That’s a big gap that’s been getting much bigger in recent decades. Since 1990, labour productivity has risen by 70% in the US, compared with 46% in the UK, 29% in the EU and 25% in Japan. A frequent objection is that US productivity is overstated since US workers get much less holiday time than their peers abroad. But even on a per-hour basis, the gap remains sizeable – there’s been 73% productivity growth for US workers since 1990 versus 55% in the UK, 39% in the euro area and 55% in Japan. And since the financial crisis of 2008-2009, US productivity has grown by 30%, more than three times the rate in the eurozone and the UK.
What’s an average worker’s output in the US?
In…
