According to EUROCHAMBRES, the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the economic performance of the EU is about 20 years behind that of the US. The study compares the EU to the US in terms of GDP, R&D, productivity and employment by “time distances”? between the two regions and forecasts how many years the EU will take to catch up with the US, and under what conditions of growth.

• Employment: Europe’s employment level for 2003 was achieved be the US in 1978. It will take the EU until 2023 to reach US levels of employment, and then only if EU employment growth will exceed that of the US by 0.5% p.a.
• R&D: Europe’s R&D investment for 2002 was achieved by the US in 1979. It will take the EU until 2123 to reach US levels of R&D investment, and then only if EU investment will exceed that of the US by 0.5% p. a.
• Income: Europe’s income for 2003 was achieved by the US in 1985. It will take the EU until 2072 to reach US levels of income per capita, and then only if EU income growth will exceed that of the US by 0.5% p. a.
• Productivity: Europe’s level of productivity for 2003 was achieved by the US in 1989. It will take the EU until 2056 to reach US productivity rates per employed, and then only if EU productivity growth will exceed that of the US by 0.5%.

EUROCHAMBRES has member organisations in 43 countries representing a network of 2,000 regional and local Chambers with over 18 million member companies. All findings from EUROCHAMBRES’ publication “Time for a fresh start – But time is not on our side. A Comparison of European and US Economies Based on Time Distances? (zipped format, 7MB)