CNBC: US preliminary Q4 productivity down 0.1%, vs 1.0% increase expected

A recent CNBC article outlined a fourth quarter decline of productivity in 2017, citing a shortage of workers as the obstacle to economic growth. Nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, unexpectedly fell at a 0.1 percent annualized rate October through December.

According to CNBC, “Hours worked increased at a rate of 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter, the fastest in three years, after rising at a 1.2 percent pace in the third quarter. Unit labor costs, the price of labor per single unit of output, rose at a pace of 2.0 percent pace in the final three months of 2017 after slipping at a rate of 0.1 percent in the third quarter.”

This is the weakest performance since the first quarter of 2016.

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