Third-Quarter Productivity Jumps to 6.3%

U.S. worker productivity jumped to an annual rate of 6.3% in the third quarter from 2.2% the previous quarter, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

The level, which helped push labor costs to the lowest in four years, topped economists’ estimates of a 5.9% third-quarter rate, Bloomberg reported.

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

When worker efficiency improves at a slower pace and labor becomes more expensive, companies may raise prices in order to guard their profits, contributing to more rapid inflation.