Photo: Workers at a construction site / Daniel Mekis, Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0
By: JBizNews Desk 🌎
American workers produced more per hour in the third quarter while the cost of labor per unit of output eased, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Nonfarm business labor productivity rose at a 3.6% annualized rate in the quarter, as output increased 3.7% and hours worked edged up 0.1%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in a preliminary estimate. Productivity was up 2.1% from a year earlier.
Unit labor costs – what employers pay in compensation for each unit produced – fell at a 0.7% annualized rate in the quarter, as a 2.9% rise in hourly compensation was outpaced by productivity gains. Unit labor costs rose 2.4% over the last four quarters.
Pay still grew after inflation: real hourly compensation rose 1.1% at an annual rate and 1.0% over the past year. The share of output going to workers as compensation was 53.0%, the lowest in a series dating to 1947.
The figures are preliminary and subject to revision. For businesses, rising productivity with easing unit labor costs means output can grow without matching increases in labor expense.
JBizNews Desk | Washington
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