Productivity figures per UK worker have slumped, official statistics show, in a development likely to put more pressure on employers to cut jobs.

In further bad news for the economy, the Office for National Statistics figures reveal that productivity per worker slipped 0.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2008, the third quarter in a row it has decreased. And despite an atmosphere of wage restraint in many sectors of the economy, unit wage costs are up 2.4 per cent on the same time last year – which is likely to push firms into cost-cutting redundancies.