US worker productivity in the third quarter posted its strongest growth in four years on a cut-back in hours that curbed labour costs, revised government data showed today.
US non-farm productivity, or hourly output per worker, rose at a 6.3 per cent annualised pace in the third quarter, in news that will help the Federal Reserve set lingering inflation-concerns aside.
It was the largest increase in productivity since the third quarter of 2003, when it increased at 10.4 per cent rate, according to the Labour Department Report.
Unit labour costs, a gauge of inflation and profit pressures under close scrutiny by the Fed, was revised to show a 2 per cent drop in the third quarter for the largest decline in four years.
These had been forecast to decline by 1 per cent, from an initially reported 0.2 per cent fall. It was the second consecutive quarter of declining labour costs.
The total number of hours worked shrank 0.6 per cent compared with a 0.5 per cent drop previously reported. The last time it dropped by more than this amount was the April to June period of 2003, when hours declined by 1.3 per cent.