A recent report about worker productivity around the globe puts the United States at or near the top. But for U.S. employees themselves, the achievement is somewhat empty.

In early September, the International Labour Organization said the United States led all nations with $63,885 of “value added” per person employed in 2006. Ireland was a distant second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg ($55,641), Belgium ($ 55,235) and France ($ 54,609).

The ILO, a United Nations agency, said Norway ranked first in terms of value added per hour worked, at $37.99. But the United States was second at $35.63, followed by France at $35.08.

Productivity has a lot to do with the tools businesses provide workers, including computers and related technology. But it also reflects workers’ skills, knowledge and effort. Unfortunately for average U.S. workers, it seems their contributions to world-class productivity haven’t gone rewarded with world-class compensation of late. Real average weekly earnings of U.S. production workers rose just 0.7 percent between August 2002 and August 2007, despite an expanding economy.

Perhaps the miniscule movement in real earnings helps explain another U.S. productivity statistic—one that’s less glowing. U.S. manufacturing productivity grew 2.4 percent last year, a rise that was exceeded by several nations, according to the U.S. Labor Department. In Taiwan, Germany and Sweden, labor productivity grew by over 6 percent, and in Korea by nearly 11 percent.

Could that less-than-stellar productivity growth in the United States be a sign that American workers are fed up with seeing so few fruits of their labor?