The output of employees in advanced economies fell last year for the first time in more than 40 years, as the global economic crisis played havoc with companies' production and employment plans.

去年，由于全球经济危机对企业生产和招募计划造成了严重破坏，发达经济体的劳动力产出出现了40多年来首次下降。

Although global labour productivity took a dive, the trends were different either side of the Atlantic. US employers reacted to the recession by cutting jobs and keeping labour productivity rising, while European unemployment rose much less and productivity dived.

尽管全球劳动生产率骤降，但大西洋两岸的趋势有所不同。美国雇主应对衰退的措施是裁员，保持劳动生产率增长，而欧洲失业率升幅相对低得多，但生产率大幅下降。

More worrying for rich economies is that rising living standards are likely to become harder to achieve in future because they have become less effective at harnessing labour, skills, machinery and technology and turning it into output.

更让富裕经济体感到担忧的是，今后可能更难实现生活水平的提高，因为他们利用劳动力、技能、机械设备和科技，并将其转化为产出的效能已有所降低。

The disturbing figures come in the annual report on productivity trends from the Conference Board, the global business organisation, which tracks output, employment and hours worked across the world.

这些令人不安的数字来自全球商业组织——世界大型企业联合会(Conference Board)发布的生产率趋势年度报告。该机构追踪世界各地的产出、就业率和工时。

In contrast to the weaknesses in rich economies, emerging economies, led by China, can expect jobs, employment and productivity to continue to grow in 2010. “Emerging economies are becoming global competitors to be reckoned with on the basis of high productivity growth, not just because of low cost,” Mr van Ark said.

与富裕经济体的颓势形成对比的是，2010年，以中国为首的新兴经济体的工作岗位数目、就业率和生产率预计会继续增长。联合会执行董事巴特•凡•阿克(Bart van Ark)表示，“新兴经济体正成为不可小觑的全球竞争者，不仅仅在于它们成本低廉，更由于它们的生产率增长很快。”

Over the past decade, rich countries have watched their rates of total factor productivity growth decline and fall behind that of the emerging world, suggesting that unless employment, investment or skills rise faster, the sustainable rate of economic growth and living standards in rich countries has fallen.

过去10年，富国全要素生产率的增长放缓，已落后于新兴世界的增速。这表明，除非就业率、投资或劳动者技能加大增速，否则富国经济增长和生活水准的可持续增长率已有所下降。

At the same time as productivity was falling, figures from the UN yesterday showed that foreign direct investment also dropped by more than a third worldwide last year, as the effect of the recession combined with difficulties in funding cross-border operations.

在生产率下降的同时，联合国昨日公布的数据显示，在经济衰退与跨境业务融资难的双重影响下，去年全球外国直接投资(FDI)也减少了三分之一以上。

FDI inflows fell from $1,697bn in 2008 to 1,040bn last year, a fall of 39 per cent. Among the leading recipients of FDI, China and the Netherlands were the only economies not to register a decline. The UN Conference on Trade and Development predicted a modest upturn in FDI this year.

去年，外国直接投资流入从2008年的1.697万亿美元跌至1.04万亿美元，降幅达39%。在主要的外国直接投资接收国中，仅有中国和荷兰没有出现下降。联合国贸易和发展会议(UN Conference on Trade and Development)预计，今年外国直接投资会有温和回升。

译者/陈云飞