Companies' Productivity Soars 9.4 Percent
By JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Productivity of U.S. companies rocketed at a 9.4 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the best showing in 20 years, offering an encouraging sign that the economic resurgence will be lasting.
The increase in productivity — the amount an employee produces per hour of work — reported by the Labor Department on Wednesday was even stronger than the 8.1 percent pace initially estimated for the July-to-September quarter a month ago and was up from a 7 percent growth rate posted in the second quarter of this year.
The third-quarter's productivity gain, based on more complete data, was better than the 9.2 percent growth rate economists were forecasting and marked the strongest performance since the second quarter of 1983, when productivity grew at a blistering 9.7 percent rate.
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full at http://tinyurl.com/xj6h
The reported numbers are quite remarkable. To be clear, I don't assume statiticians are fudging the numbers but this super-productivity seems counter-intuitive.
DRM