·
Labor productivity in the nonfarm business sector rose 2.2% at an annual
rate last quarter. The increase fell short of Consensus expectations for
a 2.5% rise while growth during 1Q and for all of last year was revised
down.
· Output growth last quarter did nearly double from 1Q to a still-modest 1.7% but the y/y rate of increase fell by roughly one percentage point to 1.8%. That was accompanied by a drop in total hours worked at a 0.5% annual rate (-1.0% y/y) which was one-third the 1Q rate of decline.
· Growth in compensation per hour did slow to 3.6% from gains during the prior two quarters that were revised up. However, the y/y gain picked up moderately to 4.3% and that exceeded the accelerated rate of increase for all of last year.
· Unit labor cost growth fell to 1.3%
after the 2.5% gain during 1Q. Year-to-year growth in costs did pick up
modestly, however, to 1.5% but that remained down compared to recent
years.
· In the factory sector, productivity fell at a 1.4% rate during 2Q (2.6% y/y) and the decline lowered year-to-year gain to its weakest since 1Q of last year. The deceleration occurred as y/y output growth slowed to roughly zero. As a result, unit labor costs rose at a 6.1% rate (1.9% y/y) and that q/q increase was the fastest since late 2006.
· Multinationals Make the Most of IT from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is available here.
· Creative Destruction, Documented from
the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond can be found here.