(FORTUNE Magazine) – After years of breakneck productivity gains, American workers are slowing down. In the third quarter, productivity growth (a measure of how much a worker accomplishes for every hour on the job) fell from 3.9% to 1.9%. That's the lowest rate since the fourth quarter of 2002 and well below the 9% rises we were seeing in mid-2003. Falling productivity does bode well for job growth, however. When companies can't wring any more out of their existing workforce, they're forced to start hiring again. And while the dropoff in productivity gains seems dramatic, Harvard University professor Dale Jorgensen points out that even at just under 2%, we're above the post-recession average, which is usually negative or less than 1% growth. -- Christopher Tkaczyk