U.S. Productivity Gains Cooled Last Quarter; Labor Costs Rose

• U.S. Productivity Gains Cooled Last Quarter; Labor Costs Rose

Worker productivity in the U.S. cooled in the fourth quarter following the biggest jump in two years, resuming the weak efficiency gains that have plagued the expansion.

The measure of employee output per hour increased at a 1.3 percent annualized rate, after a revised 3.5 percent rise in the prior three months, Labor Department figures showed Thursday in Washington. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey called for a 1 percent gain. Expenses per worker rose at a 1.7 percent pace.

The latest slowdown — following a third-quarter gain that ended the longest streak of productivity declines since 1979 — underscores the challenge of developing a sustained pickup. With wage growth remaining below pre-recession levels, businesses have relied on more hiring rather than investing in technology to increase efficiency.

Economists’ estimates for productivity ranged from no change to a gain of 2 percent. The reading for the prior quarter was initially reported as a 3.1 percent gain.

Unit labor costs, which are adjusted for efficiency gains, were forecast to rise at a 1.9 percent rate in the fourth quarter, according to the Bloomberg survey median. They increased 0.2 percent in the prior quarter, revised from a previously reported advance of 0.7 percent.

Productivity increased 1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2015. Labor costs rose 1.9 percent from a year earlier.

Real Earnings

Adjusted for inflation, hourly earnings fell at a 0.4 percent rate last quarter, the second drop in 2016, after increasing at a 2.1 percent pace.

Output rose at a 2.2 percent rate, following a 4.2 percent gain.

Hours worked advanced at a 0.9 percent pace, after rising 0.6 percent. Compensation for each hour worked increased at a 3 percent annual pace.

The latest reading on productivity is in line with the 1.1 percent average annual increase over the period spanning 2007 to 2016. It lags the 2.6 percent average gain from 2000 to 2007.

Among manufacturers, productivity rose at a 0.7 percent rate in the fourth quarter after being little changed in the previous three months.

Weak productivity weighs on corporate profits, in addition to restraining economic growth from gaining momentum in the longer term.

The economy expanded at a 1.9 percent pace last quarter following a 3.5 percent rate in the July-to-September period, according to previously released Commerce Department data.