MW:Second quarter productivity picks up to 0.9% rate
By Greg Robb
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Productivity of the U.S. non-farm business sector accelerated to a 0.9 annual rate in the second quarter following two quarters of declines, the Labor Department estimated Friday. Economists were expecting productivity to increase 0.7% in the second quarter. Productivity in the fourth quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013 were revised down sharply due to benchmark gross domestic product revisions. Unit labor costs - a key inflationary signal - rose at an annual rate of 1.4% in the second quarter. Even with the pickup in the second quarter, productivity was flat over the past four quarters.
