Productivity has barely grown in the UK since the financial crisis and now lags 35% behind Germany and 30% behind the US

自金融危机以来应该的生产力就几乎没有增长，现在已经落后德国35%，落后美国30%。

The shortfall in productivity compared with other developed economies has long been Britain’s economic achilles heel. It is a problem that Conservative and Labour chancellors¹ have been grappling with for decades.

与其他发达国家相比更低的生产力已经成了英国的阿喀琉斯之踵。几十年了，无论是保守党还是工党人当选的首相都被这个问题困扰着。

Productivity is a guide to how good a country is at delivering the goods and services that are bought and sold. Technically² it is the rate of output per unit of input³ measured per worker or by the number of hours worked. In layman’s terms it is a measure of what goes in and what comes out.

生产力是衡量一个国家生产用于交易的商品或者服务效率高低的判断标准。从技术角度来说，它是用单位人工或者单位工作时间来衡量的单位产出与单位投入的比率。在门外汉角度看就是投入和产出比的衡量工具。