Output per worker grew last year at its slowest rate since the millennium, with a slowdown evident in almost all regions, underscoring how the problem of lower productivity growth is taking on global ­proportions.
工人的人均产出增速去年创下本世纪以来的最低水平，几乎所有地区的生产率增速都明显下降，突显出生产率增长下降正成为世界性问题。
The Conference Board, a think-tank, said official data on output and employment from most countries showed that only India and sub-Saharan Africa enjoyed faster labour productivity growth last year.
智库大企业联合会(The Conference Board)表示，大多数国家的产出和就业数据表明，去年只有印度和撒哈拉以南的非洲地区的劳动生产率增速有所加快。

Globally, the rate of growth decelerated to 2.1 per cent in 2014, compared with an annual average of 2.6 per cent between 1999 and 2006, it said.
该智库表示，就全球而言，2014年劳动生产率增速降至2.1%，相比之下，从1999年到2006年的年度平均增速为2.6%。
Bart van Ark, the Conference Board’s chief economist, said total factor productivity, which takes account of skill levels and investment as well as the number of workers, fell 0.2 per cent in 2014. “This is a global phenomenon and so we have to take it very seriously,” he said.
大企业联合会的首席经济学家巴特•范阿克(Bart van Ark)表示，计入技能水平、投资以及工人数量的全要素生产率在2014年下降0.2%。他说：“这是全球现象，因此我们非常认真地对待这一问题。”
Economists now identify the problem of low productivity as one of the great threats to improved living standards, in rich and poor countries alike.
经济学家们现在将生产率低下问题确认为提高生活水平的一大威胁，穷国和富国均是如此。
The fact that companies have become less efficient at converting labour, buildings and machines into goods and services is beginning to trouble ­policy makers.
企业将劳动力、建筑物和机器转化为商品和服务的效率下降，这一事实开始让政策制定者感到头疼。
Janet Yellen, US Federal Reserve chairwoman, cited weak US productivity as a cause of “the tepid pace of wage gains in recent years” on Friday. Also last week, George Osborne, UK finance minister, set higher productivity as the most important economic priority for the new government.
上周五，美联储(Fed)主席珍妮特•耶伦(Janet Yellen)认为美国生产率疲弱是“近几年薪资增长缓慢”的原因。同样在上周，英国财政大臣乔治•奥斯本(George Osborne)将提高生产率列为新政府最重要的经济工作重点。