US labour productivity rose at a 2.4 per cent rate in the fourth quarter of 2000 compared with a revised 3 per cent rise in the third quarter, the US Labour Department said today.
Wall Street economists had expected an even more pronounced slowdown in productivity of about 1.5 per cent.
Despite the slowdown in the fourth quarter, productivity for the full year 2000 rose 4.3 per cent, the largest increase since 1983.
On a year-on-year basis, unit labor costs were up 2.2 percent.
AFP
