Productivity growth in the European Union (EU), the collection of 25 nations that some see as a kind of United States of Europe, is improving. But it still lags significantly behind productivity growth in the United States of America.
Productivity in the EU grew 1.6% last year, up from 1.3% in 2003, but only about half the 3.1% posted in the U.S., according to figures from the Conference Board, a New York-based business research group.
Productivity growth for Japan, the world's second largest (after the U.S.) single-nation economy, was 3.6% in 2004.
