Productivity jumps 6.4%
Government report shows worker productivity rose during the second quarter at its fastest rate in six years.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. non-farm productivity in the second quarter rose at its fastest pace in six years as hours worked fell much steeper than output, while the cost of labor fell at the quickest rate in nine years, data showed on Tuesday.
The Labor Department said non-farm productivity rose at a 6.4% annual rate, the biggest gain since the third quarter of 2003, from a revised 0.3% gain in the first quarter. Productivity for the January-March quarter was previously reported as a 1.6% gain.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast productivity, which measures the hourly output per worker, rising at a 5.3% rate in the second quarter.
Hours worked plunged at a 7.6% rate in the second quarter.
Unit labor costs, a gauge of inflation and profit pressures closely watched by the Federal Reserve, fell 5.8%, the biggest decline since the second quarter of 2000. Analysts had expected unit labor costs to fall 2.4% in the second quarter. Unit labor costs dropped by a revised 2.7% in the January-March quarter.
The government also published revisions to productivity for 2006 through 2008 following adjustments to gross domestic product estimates. 
