America's Productivity Above Peers

City Journal reports:

In 2010, the OECD, measuring countries’ productivity according to GDP per hour worked, placed the United States ahead of all leading industrialized countries, at $59.50, beating France ($54.80), Germany ($53.40), the United Kingdom ($46.70), Canada ($45.00), and Japan ($39.40). A study published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives by Bart van Ark, Mary O’Mahony, and Marcel Timmer found that between 1995 and 2004, annual American productivity growth exceeded that of Europe by 68 percent, and 70 percent of that difference could be traced to what they called “knowledge economy” factors and what we would call advantages in human capital: better workplace technology, greater worker skill and effort, and more efficient management. America’s challenge now is to maintain its technological supremacy and to motivate its labor force to work even harder and better.

An article well worth your time.