Responding to official figures released at the start of this month, showing that quarterly labour productivity increased by 0.5% in Q2, Tej Parikh — senior economist at the Institute of Directors (www.iod.com) — said: “Despite the recent ‘up-tick’, sub-par productivity growth continues to be a bugbear for the UK economy.

“On the one hand, the labour market is booming with a near-record number of people in jobs; on the other hand, we are struggling to increase our productivity.

This story of growing employment without a significant pick-up in output has come to define our economy over the past decade, with weak wage growth being a key outcome.

“Uncertainty has played its part in subduing the investment that could drive productivity, but more impetus needs to return to the domestic-economic policy agenda.

“The Chancellor’s announcements to boost skills and business mentoring at the Conservative Party Conference were a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done.

“Moreover, until smaller businesses get the support to scale up and invest in established technologies, the productivity challenge, and weak pick-up in wages will likely linger on.”