Third-Quarter Productivity Rises 0.2%; Rate Is Year’s Slowest

December 5, 2006 9:00 AM, EST

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hird-quarter productivity grew at the slowest rate this year as labor costs were revised down, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

Productivity rose at a 0.2% annual rate following an initial report last month of no change in the third quarter. The gain was below economists’ forecasts of a 0.5% increase, Bloomberg reported.

That compared with a 1.2% growth rate in the second quarter, and a measure of labor costs rose 2.3% and was up 2.9% for the 12 months ended in September, Labor said.

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

Among manufacturers, productivity rose at a 6.7% rate, up from 2.7% in the second quarter.