Hourly output fell 0.5% in the first three months of the year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

At the end of 2016, productivity returned to the level seen before the downturn, overturning years of decline which has weighed on wages.

But it has now slipped back again and is 0.4% below the peak recorded at the end of 2007, according to the ONS.

Economists have warned that the UK's productivity continues to lag behind its major trading partners such as the US, France and Germany.

ONS head of productivity Philip Wales said: "UK labour productivity growth has struggled since the 2008 economic downturn, and the fall in the first quarter of 2017 brings to an end a recent run of quarters of positive growth."

It was the first quarterly fall in productivity since the end of 2015, according to the ONS.