The labor market, for its part, remains tight. Unemployment stands at a historically low level, at 4.1% of the labor force, compared with 8.3% in France. The wealth gap has widened. European gross domestic product per capita is already 25% lower than that of the United States, compared with 14% in 2008.
In France, productivity gains remain weak. In the first quarter of 2026, employee productivity was only 2.6% above its 2019 level, notes the French Office of Economic Conditions on the basis of Insee data.
This pace is twice that expected for the major European economies, including France. Europe is watching this momentum from afar, if not from very far away.
The situation nevertheless appears less worrying than what was feared a few months ago. The indicator remains no less decisive: it tends to guide growth and wage increases.
This growth is also fueled by the surge in investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure. The rebound in productivity has led the Federal Reserve to raise its long-term growth forecasts, from 1.8% to 2%. Strong American growth is partly explained by this acceleration. For economist Anis Bensaidani, this recovery is one of the drivers of the rise in gross domestic product, of 3.4% in the last quarter on an annualized basis.
This indicator measures the ability to produce more with the same resources. It is returning to levels that had not been seen since the early 2000s and the mass rollout of the Internet.
Productivity has resumed its rise in the United States, after the sharp slowdown that followed the 2008 financial crisis. Over the past three months, it climbed 3.6% on an annualized basis, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data published Thursday.
In the United States, productivity gains are not really reflected in workers' pay, whose wages are rising more slowly. Adjusted for inflation, real wages have increased by only 1% over one year, according to the latest data.