U.S. worker productivity increased at its fastest pace in 11 years in second quarter as hours plunged amid the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an ...
U.S. worker productivity increased at its fastest pace in 11 years in second quarter as hours plunged amid the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an acceleration in labor costs.
FILE PHOTO: A worker with a face shield checks products on the shelf of a grocery store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., August 7, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo AllegriWASHINGTON: U.S. worker productivity increased at its fastest pace in 11 years in second quarter as hours plunged amid the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an acceleration in labor costs.
The Labor Department said on Friday nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, increased at a 7.3per cent annualized rate last quarter, its largest rise since the second quarter of 2009. Productivity fell at a 0.3per cent pace in the January-March period. Hours worked tumbled at a 43.0per cent rate in the second quarter, the largest since the series started in the first quarter of 1947.Economists polled by Reuters had forecast productivity rebounding at a 1.
Compared to the second quarter of 2019, productivity rose at a 2.2per cent rate. Growth in unit labor costs - the price of labor per single unit of output - jumped at a 12.2per cent rate in the April-June quarter. Unit labor costs increased at a 9.8per cent rate in the first quarter. They rose at a 5.7per cent rate in from a year ago.
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