Non-farm production revised lower

The initial estimate released in November put productivity up 9.5 percent on an annual basis, the fastest growth rate in six years.
On Thursday, the department said productivity rose 8.1 percent, a 1.4 percentage point revision that still marks the largest gain since the third quarter of 2003.

In the second quarter, productivity rose 6.4 percent. At the time, that was the largest gain since 2003, when productivity rose 9.7 percent in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, unit labor costs, the price of labor per units produced, dropped 2.5 percent in the third quarter as the productivity -- up 8.1 percent -- rose faster than outlays for hourly workers, which rose 5.4 percent.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International.