UK faces two decades of no earnings growth and more austerity, says IFS

Thinktank's budget analysis says forecasts for lower productivity, earnings and growth until 2022 were 'pretty grim reading'

Britain's leading financial thinktank has warned workers to expect an unprecedented two lost decades of earnings growth and many more years of austerity as a result of the marked slowdown in the economy announced in Philip Hammond's budget.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said in its traditional post-budget analysis that forecasts slashing productivity, earnings and growth in every year until 2022 made "pretty grim reading", and predicted that even by the middle of the next decade, Britain's public finances would still be in the red.

Related: Public services face real-terms spending cuts of up to 40% in decade to 2020

Productivity is an economic measure of the efficiency of a workforce. It typically measures the level of output per hour of work, or per worker.