US Productivity Falls for a Second Quarter, Labor Costs Surge

From bnnbloomberg.ca

US productivity slumped for a second-straight quarter as the economy shrank, driving another surge in labor costs that risks keeping inflation elevated and further complicates the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tame price increases. Productivity, or nonfarm business employee output per hour, decreased at a 4.6% annual rate in the second quarter after falling at a 7.4% pace in the previous three months, Labor Department figures showed Tuesday. That marked the weakest back-to-back readings in data back to 1947. On a year-over-year basis, output per hour fell by the most on record. With the drop in productivity, unit ... (full story)