Productivity Declines to 0.6% Rate in Fourth Quarter

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.S. workers’ productivity fell at a 0.6% annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Labor Department said Thursday, the weakest quarter for growth in nearly three years.

Economists expected no change in the productivity rate, Bloomberg reported. Productivity is a measure of how much an employee produces for every hour of work.

Among manufacturers, third-quarter productivity grew 3.9% rate following a 3.7% rise in the third quarter.

abor costs jumped at a 3.5% pace, the most in a year, hours worked rose 1.5% and output rose 0.9%, 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.