Third-Quarter Productivity Rises to 4.7% Rate

.S. workers’ productivity grew at a 4.7 % annual rate in the third quarter, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

The latest reading was higher than the revised 2.1% second-quarter rate that had been originally reported lower.

Economists had forecast productivity — a measure of how much an employee produces for every hour of work — to rise at a 4.5% rate, Bloomberg reported.

Among manufacturers, productivity grew at a 3.4% rate, following a 4% rate in the second quarter.

or non-financial corporations, productivity rose 3.2%, Labor said.