US Productivity Rises 1.5% in 2Q

September 7, 2017 Share Print 0

U.S. worker productivity was stronger than initially thought in the second quarter, leading to a modest increase in labor costs that could keep inflation muted in the near term.

The Labor Department said on Thursday that nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, rose at a 1.5 percent annualized rate. Productivity was previously reported to have increased at a 0.9 percent pace in the April-June period. It grew at a 0.1 percent rate in the first quarter.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected that productivity would be revised up to a 1.3 percent pace in the second quarter.

The government last week revised up second-quarter gross domestic product growth to a 3.0 percent rate from a 2.6 percent pace.

Despite the upward revision to productivity, the trend remains weak, suggesting it would be difficult to achieve robust economic growth. President Donald Trump has vowed to boost annual growth to 3 percent through tax cuts, infrastructure spending and regulatory rollbacks.

via CNBC

This article is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Corporation or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. Leveraged trading is high risk and not suitable for all. You could lose all of your deposited funds.

Bio
Twitter
Google+
Latest Posts

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.