However, this apparent trade-off between labour utilisation and productivity is likely to be a temporary phenomenon that should progressively fade, when the economy reaches a higher “equilibrium” labour/output ratio. In this respect, it is worth mentioning that the US managed at the same time to increase both labour input and labour productivity.
There is indeed another major reason that explains the big difference in the rate of labour productivity growth in Europe compared with the US, which in my view is a major policy issue, namely the fact that the European economy does not take advantage as does the US economy of all the opportunities offered in particular by the advances of science and technology including, but not exclusively, in the ICT sector.