The rate of growth of United States productivity has lagged far behind Japan's for four decades and has declined by half since the 1960's.

In a departure from most quarters in recent years, productivity in manufacturing lagged behind that of the general business sector, rising 1.4 percent.

But its productivity lags in the new Europe.

Quite the opposite: foreign competition has become more intense precisely because American productivity has lagged.

But as the public sector ballooned, swelling from one-third to more than half the economy, business and productivity lagged behind the world as a whole.

But other data show that productivity in Japan lags behind both the United States and most other Western economies.

Britain's sluggish work habits survive, and its productivity still lags.

Our productivity lagged behind that of other industrial nations.

Domestic wages and productivity are still lagging.

But productivity among the Tupperware sales force has been lagging, a problem compounded by the company's difficulty in introducing popular new products.