U.S. Workers' Productivity Grew 2.2% in the Second Quarter

.S. workers’ productivity grew at a 2.2% annual rate in the second quarter, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

The latest reading was slower than the 3.2% first-quarter growth rate but exceeded economists’ expectations of a 2% gain, Bloomberg reported.

Productivity is a measure of how much an employee produces for every hour of work.

abor costs, the amount paid for each unit of production, rose at a 1.3% annual rate following a 3.6% first-quarter gain, initially reported as 3.3%. It was the fifth straight rise.

For all of 2004, productivity rose 3.4%, compared with the 4% rise the government reported previously. It rose 3.8% in 2003, which had originally been reported as 4.3%.