Just a reminder as on all articles like these - productivity refers to the economic definition of GDP per hour worked, not the colloquial one.<p>So it isn't about how hard people work, but rather which industries they have and how much value these add. So the lack of large tech companies being based in Europe and only a handful of high tech engineering companies probably really hammers at the productivity figures.
Service industries like technology and finance are huge productivity multipliers. With the more traditional manufacturing here in Europe you don't really experience that huge growth, even if ones particular niche is still healthy.
Europe is stuck operating with 20th century principles, whereas the US and China have both reinvented versions of capitalism that work better.