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Productivity Remains Weak; Spotlight on Retail Store and Trucking; Are Productivity Measurements Accurate?
by Mike “Mish” Shedlock
MISH’S Global Economic Trend Analysis
Economists expected bounce in productivity, and got one, but it was a bit weaker than than the Bloomberg Consensus Estimate of 1.6%.
A bounce back for output gave first-quarter productivity a lift, up a quarter-to-quarter 1.3 percent vs a revised decline of 1.1 percent in the first quarter. The bounce in output also held down unit labor costs which rose 0.5 percent vs 2.3 percent in the first quarter.
Output in the second quarter rose 2.8 percent vs a depressed 0.5 percent in the first quarter. Compensation rose 1.8 percent, up from 1.1 percent in the first quarter, while hours worked were little changed, up 1.5 percent vs 1.6 in the first quarter.
Looking at year-on-year rates, growth in productivity is very slight at only plus 0.3 percent while costs do show some pressure, up 2.1 percent in a reading, along with the rise in compensation, that will be welcome by Federal Reserve officials who are hoping that gains in wages will help offset weakness in commodity costs and help give inflation a needed boost.
Continue Reading at GlobalEconomicAnalysis.Blogspot.ca…
Source: http://financialsurvivalnetwork.com/2015/08/productivity-remains-weak-spotlight-on-retail-store-and-trucking-are-productivity-measurements-accurate/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=productivity-remains-weak-spotlight-on-retail-store-an
