The United Kingdom productivity paradox: Myth or reality

The stagnation in full time employment and increasing numbers of part time and self-employed workers pose a significant challenge to the UK economy. However, the key to the paradox might actually lie in a long term evaluation of all these factors of production. Whilst economists, politicians and the media puzzle over the UK paradox of rising employment and falling output, this paper attempts to evaluate the relationship between output hours, productivity hours and employment together with the continuing rise of the UK population, an increasing dependency on services and a tendency to increasing unemployment.