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		</div><p>Britain’s productivity has fallen at the fastest annual pace in five years in a sign that Brexit uncertainty is compounding an already weak spot in the UK economy.</p>
<p>Official figures showed that output per hour worked fell 0.5% year-on-year between April and June – the biggest drop since the second quarter of 2014.</p>
<p>Productivity fell 0.2% quarter-on-quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).</p>
<p>The drop in year-on-year productivity in the labour market follows two previous quarters of zero growth.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Labour productivity in Q2 2019 was down by 0.5%, compared with the same quarter for 2018.</p>
<p>This follows two previous quarters of no growth <a href="https://t.co/Pr0JNFEuPI">https://t.co/Pr0JNFEuPI</a> <a href="https://t.co/bDOufHySaQ">pic.twitter.com/bDOufHySaQ</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) <a href="https://twitter.com/ONS/status/1181487283406561280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>It comes after years of below-par productivity – leading to the so-called “productivity puzzle” seen in the UK economy since the 2008 financial crisis and following recession.</p>
<p>Richard Heys, deputy chief economist at the ONS, said:<em> “Labour productivity has continued the weak trajectory it has followed over the last year.</em></p>
<p><em>“Both manufacturing and services saw a fall on this time last year, with only a couple of other relatively small sectors contributing positively.</em></p>
<p><em>“This confirms the broad base of the UK’s productivity challenges.”</em></p>
<p>The ONS figures showed the dominant services sector, which accounts for around three quarters of UK economic output, saw a 0.8% fall year-on-year in productivity, while manufacturing suffered a 1.9% drop.</p>
<p>Experts said the data suggests another area where Brexit uncertainty has taken its toll.</p>
<p>There are also cracks appearing in the wider employment market, with two major recruiters on Tuesday – PageGroup and Robert Walters – warning over the impact of Brexit on the UK jobs sector.</p>
<p>Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club, said: <em>“Heightened concerns over Brexit – especially serious concerns among many companies of the UK leaving the EU without a ‘deal’ at the end of October – has clearly caused companies to limit their investment with damaging implications for productivity.”</em></p>
<p>Business investment fell again between April to June – marking declines in five out of the six last quarters.</p>
<p>Jon Boys, labour market economist at the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, said: <em>“Though we talk of a productivity puzzle, there is an obvious culprit and that’s uncertainty.</em></p>
<p><em>“Government needs to reduce uncertainty, so businesses aren’t deterred from investing for the future.”</em></p>
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