First-Quarter Productivity Rises 3.2%

orker productivity jumped at a 3.2% annual rate in the first quarter following the first decline in nearly five years, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

he rate turned around at 0.3% decline in the fourth quarter, Labor said. The first-quarter rate topped economists’ forecasts of a 3% rise, Bloomberg reported.

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