Telecoms productivity outstripped by US

A huge gulf still exists between the UK and US productivity records in industries such as transport and telecommunications industries, according to a report by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, though Britain generally leads Germany in the efficiency stakes.

Despite massive job shedding at British Telecom, the US phone companies still had 27 per cent more lines per employee and three times as many calls per employee.

Meanwhile the US postal services were twice as productive as the UK's in terms of items of mail handled by each member of staff, though the British Post Office was 50 per cent more efficient than Germany's. Similar findings were made in the transport sector.