After fluctuating sharply during the health crisis, hourly productivity in Q4 2022 remains well below its 2019 level in France and Spain, while exceeding it in Germany and Italy. Although a one-off sectoral composition effect had an upward bearing on hourly productivity in 2020 and 2021, the productivity differentials in 2022 in relation to pre-crisis levels mainly reflect an intra-branch effect, i.e. the changes in productivity in the branches of activity themselves. 

In France, the loss of hourly productivity in the main branches of activity appears to be greater than amongst its neighbours. This applies to industry in particular, and more specifically to the energy-water-waste branch (probably linked to the difficulties currently affecting electricity production), in addition to the manufacture of transport equipment, where output in automobile manufacturing has deteriorated more significantly than the volume of hours worked in France, Germany and Italy. However, for the manufacture of other transport equipment (aeronautical construction, in particular), this differential appears to be greater in France than in the other three countries. In addition, in France, the rapid development of work-linked training in all branches since the end of 2020 automatically explains a significant proportion of the decline in productivity...