U.S. Productivity Falls Most Since Early 2014, Labor Costs Jump
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Worker productivity slumped in the fourth quarter by the most in almost two years, leading to a pickup in U.S. labor costs that threaten corporate profits.
The measure of employee output per hour of work decreased at a 3 percent annualized rate in the final three months of last year, the most since the first quarter 2014. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 2 percent decline.