Businesses more productive in third quarter
U.S. businesses produced goods and services more efficiently in the third quarter than originally believed, mainly by boosting output while keeping labor and other costs down.
Productivity rose a revised 2.9% in the July-to-September period, up from a first reading of 1.9%, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Figures for productivity are revised twice after the initial report is released.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected productivity to be revised up to 2.8%, compared to a 1.9% gain in the second quarter.
The amount of goods and services produced, known as output, was revised up to 4.2% from 3.2%. That accounted entirely for the big upward move.
The number of hours employees worked was unchanged at a 1.3% increase.
Unit-labor costs sank 1.9% vs. an original decline of just 0.1%. Unit-labor costs reflect how much it costs a business to produce one unit of output, such as a ton of coal or a bushel of wheat.
The amount of hourly pay rose 0.9% in the third quarter, down from a prior estimate of 1.8%.
After accounting for inflation, however, hourly wages dropped 1.4% instead of a 0.4% decline. And the gain for the second quarter was reduced to 0.6% from 2.8%.
Over the past 12 months, inflation-adjusted wages have risen a scant 0.1%. That largely reflects an increase in inflation that’s offset the slow growth in earnings.
So far this year, productivity has expanded at an annual 1.4% pace. Since 1947, productivity growth has averaged about 2.2% annually.
Higher productivity is the key to a nation becoming richer because it results in bigger profits for businesses and eventually larger paychecks for workers. Low productivity is a sign of poor or declining economic health.
The rate of productivity, combined with population growth, suggests the ceiling for the U.S. economy’s growth in 2012 is around 2%. That’s not fast enough to rapidly reduce the nation’s 7.9% unemployment rate.
Yet quarterly productivity data is frequently subject to large revisions and economists caution that it can take several quarters to establish a trend.
In the manufacturing sector, meanwhile, the decline in productivity was revised down to 0.7% from 0.4%. |
发表于 2012-12-5 10:21
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