US worker productivity fell in the second quarter, leading to the biggest year-on-year decline on record, the government confirmed on Thursday, maintaining upward pressure on labor costs.
Productivity outside the agricultural sector, which measures hourly output per worker, contracted at an annualized rate of 4.1% in the last quarter, the Labor Department said.
The figure was revised up from the 4.6% decline reported earlier last month.
Productivity fell at a rate of 7.4% in the first quarter.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected the pace of decline in productivity to be revised to 4.5%.
Productivity dropped 2.4% year-on-year, instead of the 2.5% low estimated last month.
Still, it was the biggest year-over-year decline since the government began tracking the series in the first quarter of 1948.
The productivity decline, in the context of very strong employment growth, is likely to be unsustainable. This has economists expecting hiring to slow in the coming months.
The average generation of jobs was around 461,300 jobs per month in the first half of the year and surpassed the general economy.
Source: CNN Brasil
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