US Vice President Joe Biden and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue tour Impulse Manufacturing with President Ronald Baysden and Plant Manager John Robert Densmore, in Dawsonville, Georgia December 17, 2009.

Global Productivity 2010: The output of employees in advanced economies fell in 2009 for the first time in more than 40 years, as the global economic crisis hit companies' output.

Worldwide output per worker will jump 2.2 per cent this year after the deepest global recession in six decades caused a 1 per cent slide in 2009, the first since 1991’s 0.1 percent dip.

An annual report on productivity from the Conference Board, the business group, found US employers had layed off workers and kept labour productivity rising, while unemployment in Europe rose much less, with the consequence that productivity plunged.

Germany for example had more than 1 million workers in its subsidised part-time work scheme.

Output per hour of work rose in the United States by 2.5 per cent in 2009 while productivity was fell  by 1 per cent on average in the Eurozone.

The Conference Board said the gap would narrow in the current year but the United States would still outperform much of the Eurozone. Economists forecast that productivity would strengthen to 3 per cent in the United States in 2010 and return to positive growth of 2 per cent in the Eurozone.

"These are unusually large differences in productivity growth between the United States and Europe,"said Bart van Ark, chief economist for the Conference Board, a private sector group, based in New York."US employers have reacted much more aggressively to the recession than their European counterparts in terms of cutting jobs and hours."

While productivity will improve this year, Van Ark said a jobless recovery is both Europe and the U.S. is“the most likely scenario.”

Emerging economies, led by China, can expect jobs, employment and productivity to continue to grow in 2010. “Emerging economies are becoming global competitors to be reckoned with on the basis of high productivity growth, not just because of low cost,” Van Ark said.

Productivity actually fell by an estimated 3.8 per cent in Russia in 2009 and was down 3.2 per cent in Turkey while rising by an estimated 3.9 per cent in India and 8.2 per cent in China.

China’s productivity growth is projected to be 7.7 per cent this year.

Irish and Spanish productivity rose last year, to 1.5 per cent and 3.8 per cent, respectively, mainly reflecting the recession.

The big rise in the capital intensive chemical sector, wile other more labour intensive sectors plunged, flattered Ireland's performance.

Labour productivity performance, while important, is a short term benefit for economic performance. However, long-term economic performance reflects a country's ability to use a broad range of skills, including its public policies and infrastructural development to improve living standards. This is termed total factor productivity by economists.

Rich countries are facing an increasing challenge from emerging economies on total factor productivity.

Economics database

Total Economy Database, Summary Statistics, 1995-2010  - - Irish GDP in this report, should be deflated by about 20 per cent because of the huge impact of multinationals in the economy.