WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (Chinese media) -- Productivity in the U.S. nonfarm business sector rose at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, far above the 1.1 percent growth pace economists expected, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.
The fourth-quarter gain in productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, was double the 1.5 percent increase in the third quarter.
While productivity rose, labor costs were up in the October-to-December period but at a slower pace than in the third quarter.
Employers' unit labor costs, or costs of wages and benefits for each unit of output, edged up at an annual rate of 1.8 percent, lower than the 2.6 percent rate in the third quarter.
Productivity rose at a bigger-than-expected pace in the fourth quarter because the number of hours worked during the period plunged 8.4 percent, faster than the 5.5 percent decline of output.
That was reflecting the massive wave of layoffs that occurred during the final three months of last year.
A total of about 2.6 million jobs were lost in 2008, the most since 1946. More than half of them were cut in the final three months.
For the whole year, U.S. productivity in nonfarm business sector rose by 2.8 percent, double the 1.4 percent gain in 2007 and the best showing since 2004.
Growth in productivity allows companies to pay their workers more without having to raise the price of their products, which fuels inflation.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment