Worker Productivity Up, Wage Pressures Ease

WASHINGTON -- The productivity of American workers rebounded in the spring while wage pressures eased, a combination that should be welcomed at the Federal Reserve.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that worker efficiency rose at an annual rate of 1.8 percent in the April-June quarter, more than double the 0.7 percent pace of the first three months of the year.

Meanwhile, unit labor costs rose at a 2.1 percent rate, marking the second consecutive quarter that wage pressures have eased. While rising wages are good for workers, if wages rise too quickly they can spur unwanted inflation.

Fed policymakers, who were meeting Tuesday, were expected to keep interest rates unchanged for the ninth consecutive meeting. The productivity report will be seen as good news on the inflation front, but Fed policymakers have said they want to see more signs that a surge in inflation earlier this year has abated.

The Fed closely monitors productivity and labor costs for signals of underlying inflation pressures.

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Productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, is the key ingredient for rising living standards. As long as productivity is rising at a solid rate, the increased output allows businesses to pay their workers more without having to boost the cost of their products, which increases inflation.

The 1.8 percent rise in productivity in the second quarter was slightly below the 2 percent advance that had been expected.

The productivity increase reflected the fact that overall economic output, as measured by the gross domestic product, jumped sharply in the spring to an annual rate of 3.4 percent, the fastest pace in more than a year and up sharply from an anemic 0.6 percent growth rate in the first three months of the year.

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