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Article: Productivity rises at 3.5 percent rate, unit labor costs fall in fourth quarter
- Article from:
- AP Worldstream
- Article date:
- February 6, 2002
- Author:
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Dateline: WASHINGTON
Worker productivity rose in the fourth quarter by the largest amount
in more than a year as businesses cut workers' hours and eliminated
jobs to cope with the ailing economy.
Productivity _ the amount of output per hour of work _ increased at
an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the October-December quarter, a big
improvement over the 1.1 percent growth rate in the previous quarter,
the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
Businesses responded to slumping sales by sharply cutting back on
their payrolls. That caused the total number of hours worked to drop
at a faster pace than output, thus creating a rise in productivity.
Workers' hours fell at a 3.7 ...