The U.S. Department of Labor has updated data on non-farm labor productivity and unit labor cost for the period October-December 2022.
Accordingly, non-agricultural labor productivity increased by 1.7 percent in the last quarter of last year. The market expectation for the said data was for an increase of 2.6 percent.
In the pioneering data on non-agricultural labor productivity published in February, it was noted that productivity increased by 3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
Non-farm labor productivity in the country increased by 1.2 percent in the third quarter, after falling by 6.1 percent in the first quarter and 3.8 percent in the second quarter of last year.
In the fourth quarter of last year, production increased by 3.1 percent and working hours increased by 1.4 percent.
Non-agricultural labor productivity decreased by 1.8 percent on an annual basis in the fourth quarter of last year.
Average annual productivity fell 1.7 percent from 2021 to 2022, the largest annual decline since 1974.
The increase in unit labor cost, which is one of the inflation indicators followed by the US Federal Reserve (Fed), in the fourth quarter of last year was revised from 1.1 percent to 3.2 percent.
Market expectations for the unit labor cost were to increase by 1.6 percent in the last quarter of last year.
The unit labor cost in the country had increased by 8.5 percent in the first quarter, 6.6 percent in the second quarter and 6.9 percent in the third quarter of last year.
The increase in unit labor cost in the last quarter of last year was the lowest increase recorded since the first quarter of 2021.