More productive workers are helping companies hold down labor
costs. Unit labor costs, or the amount paid for each unit of
production, rose at a 1.5 percent annual rate in the first
quarter, revised down from the 1.9 percent increase reported last
month. Labor costs were up 0.8 percent from the same point a year
earlier.
Economists had expected productivity would be revised to show
a 2 percent annual growth rate, based on the median of 59
forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. They had also expected unit
labor costs to rise at a 1.6 percent rate.
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Hours worked fell at a 0.1 percent pace compared with a 0.9
percent increase in the fourth quarter. Output increased at a 1.8
percent rate in the first quarter from a 1.7 percent pace in the
previous three months.
Among manufacturers, productivity grew at a 1.9 percent pace
after decreasing at a 0.5 percent rate in the fourth quarter.
Bloomberg News
