Labor productivity is an important factor that is used not only by economists but also by successful companies. The measure shows how productive labor is for a given hour, day, month, etc. Higher the productivity better the performance of a company or in the case of a country the higher the GDP.

According to OECD, Ireland is the most productive country based on GDP per hour worked followed by Luxembourg and Norway. This is surprising since Ireland is not generally considered as a great economy and Ireland is not a leader in world-class industries in technology, defense, electronics, etc. The U.S. ranks lower than Germany in labor productivity. All the countries that are better than the US in terms of labor productivity are European.

The lowest productive country among OECD members is Mexico. Others such as Hungary and Chile are also poor in productivity.Japan and Korea are famously known for their workaholic cultures where workers toil away long hours every day without taking a vacation in a year. But unfortunately they are not as productive as others that work less hours.

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Source: OECD