Productivity Declines 0.5% in Fourth Quarter

.S. workers’ productivity fell at a 0.5% annual rate in the fourth quarter, the first decline in nearly five years, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

The revised rate compared with the 0.6% decline reported in early February. Economists had expected a 0.1% drop in the productivity rate, Bloomberg reported.

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

abor costs rose 3.3%, the most in a year. Hours worked rose 2% and output rose 1.5%, compared with a 4.7% third-quarter gain.

For all of 2005, productivity rose 2.7%, down from 3.4% in 2004 and the slowest since 2001.