Productivity in U.S. Rises as Companies Try to Lower Costs

The productivity of U.S. workers rose in the first quarter as companies tried to contain labor costs.

The measure of employee output per hour increased at a 0.5 percent annual rate, after a 1.7 percent drop in the prior three months, revised figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 0.6 percent advance. Expenses per worker slumped at a 4.3 percent rate after surging in the last three months of 2012 by the most in more than a decade.