Productivity in nonfarm businesses increased 0.7 percent in the first quarter at an annual rate, reversing a sharp drop in output per hour in the last three months of 2012, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported May 2.
The uptick in labor productivity follows a 1.7 percent decline in the fourth quarter of 2012, as revised. The fourth-quarter downturn was the largest in four years, based on seasonally adjusted figures
Despite the turnaround from the previous quarter, first-quarter productivity fell slightly short of many analysts’ forecasts.
“This report isn’t as positive as the headline figure may suggest, ...
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