Thursday, May 7, 2009

The government says productivity rebounded in the first three months of this year while wage pressures eased, both outcomes reflecting the country's deep recession.

The Labor Department said Thursday that productivity, the key ingredient to rising living standards, grew at a 0.8% annual rate in the January-March quarter, slightly better than the 0.6% increase that economists had expected.

Wage pressures, as measured by unit labor costs, increased at a 3.3% rate, higher than the 2.8% rise that economists had expected but lower than the 5.7% spike in the final three months of last year.