According to the last figures available, during the 1980’s and the first half of the 1990s, hourly labour productivity in the euro area grew on average by 2.4%, then it decelerated to 1.3% on average between 1996 and 2006. By contrast, US hourly labour productivity growth rose from 1.3% to 2.1% over the same period. 2  European Commission – AMECO database.
3  Data from European Commission database AMECO. Hours worked data from the OECD. 4  See “Developments in the structural features of the euro area labour markets over the last decade” ECB Monthly Bulletin, January 2007. 5  Labour Force Statistics - Eurostat.