Friday, November 6, 2015

U.S. Productivity Improves with moderate annual growth rate...

Nonfarm productivity during Q3'15 grew 1.6% at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (0.4% y/y) following a 3.5% rise in Q2, earlier reported as 3.3%. Zero change in Q3 productivity was expected, so the data was higher than that.

It shows U.S. economy is somewhat solid with labor market condition. Even though recent inflationary pressure is very low, ULC, unit labor costs, and compensation data in annual rate are firm similar with previous year.

Especially in 3Q, U.S. GDP growth was subdued as face headwind of high inventory/sales ratio. Under this vulnerable environment, productivity data was up more than market expectation. Albeit someone like Richard Fisher does not believe this as a faithful indicator, I think this could underpin firm economic momentum in U.S.


Productivity & Costs (SAAR, %)Q3'15Q2'15Q1'15Q3 Y/Y201420132012
Nonfarm Business Sector
Output per Hour (Productivity)1.63.5-1.10.40.70.00.9
Compensation per Hour3.01.71.52.42.71.12.7
Unit Labor Costs1.4-1.82.62.02.01.11.7
Manufacturing Sector
Output per Hour (Productivity)4.92.1-0.61.51.30.70.7
Compensation per Hour5.90.0-2.21.92.70.21.8
Unit Labor Costs0.9-2.0-1.60.51.4-0.51.0

No comments:

Post a Comment