Irish workers are the second most productive in the world, surpassed only by Americans, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
When measured per hour rather than the total number of hours worked, however, oil-rich Norway was the most productive, with the US second and France third, the ILO said in a report that it publishes every two years. It used mostly data for 2006.
"The difference in rankings can be explained by the fact that annual working hours per person employed are considerably higher in the United States than in the majority of European economies," the report said.
The Republic's number two ranking was in terms of total hours worked, while Irish workers came in fifth in terms of productivity per hour.
Among the wealthy industrialised nations, the ILO figures showed that long-term productivity improvements were often more marked in western Europe and Japan than the US.
The average annual rate of productivity growth in the US was 1.7 per cent between 1980 and 2005, whether measured in terms of total hours worked or per hour.
By comparison, the annual rise in Irish output per worker over the same period was 3.1 per cent when based on total hours per worker each year and 3.8 per cent if measured per hour.
In Britain, the equivalent figures were 2.1 per cent and 2.4 per cent. For France, productivity rose 1.5 per cent per year based on total hours worked, and 2.2 per cent when calculated in terms of output per hour.
For Germany the rises were 1.4 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively. For Italy 1.1 per cent and 1.4 per cent, and for Japan 1.8 per cent and 2.5 per cent.
While coming from way behind, productivity growth is fastest in China and other parts of east Asia, according to the ILO, an agency created by governments after the first World War to promote employment standards.
Although the data is more sketchy, it basically pointed to a near doubling of productivity in east Asia over the past decade, the ILO said.
Output per worker had risen from one-eighth of the level of the industrialised countries in 1996 to one-fifth of that level in 2006, it said.
In 2006, the productivity rise was 3.3 per cent at the global level, 2.1 per cent for the industrialised world and 8.5 per cent in east Asia, a region dominated by China.
Other parts of Asia showed strong if less spectacular growth, and the ILO also noted an improvement in living conditions in Asia generally.
In contrast, sub-Saharan Africa's weak economic performance resulted in an increase of 24 million in the number of working poor, those earning less than $1 per day. -( Reuters )
