ΗΠΑ: Αύξηση της παραγωγικότητας κατά 1,8% στο δ’ τρίμηνο

ΗΠΑ: Αύξηση της παραγωγικότητας κατά 1,8% στο δ’ τρίμηνο

ΑΥΞΗΣΗ μεγαλύτερη του αναμενόμενου παρουσίασε η παραγωγικότητα στις ΗΠΑ κατά το τέταρτο τρίμηνο του 2007, σύμφωνα με τα στοιχεία που δημοσιοποίησε την Τετάρτη το αμερικανικό υπουργείο Εργασίας. Συγκεκριμένα, η παραγωγικότητα – εξαιρουμένου του γεωργικού τομέα – με βάση την ωριαία παραγωγή ανά εργάτη, αυξήθηκε κατά 1,8%.

Υπενθυμίζεται πως στο τρίτο τρίμηνο η αντίστοιχη αύξηση είχε φτάσει στο 6%.

NAFTEMPORIKI

---

U.S. Productivity Increases 1.8%, More Than Forecast

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Worker productivity in the U.S. grew more than forecast in the fourth quarter as businesses reduced employee hours at the fastest pace in almost five years.

Productivity, a measure of employee efficiency, rose at an annual rate of 1.8 percent, after a 6 percent pace in the third quarter, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 0.5 percent gain. A gauge of labor costs climbed less than forecast.

Businesses are trimming staff to prevent productivity from slowing along with the economy and control expenses in order to avoid having to raise prices. Federal Reserve policy makers are counting on a slowdown in inflation to be able to keep cutting interest rates to stave off a recession.

``Productivity in the second half of the year still was quite strong,'' Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, said before the report. ``Normally labor costs would be a concern for the Fed, but they're not at this time. The economy is losing momentum, it is at the risk of a recession.''

The median forecast was based on 71 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Projections ranged from a drop of 0.6 percent to a gain of 2.7 percent.

Treasury notes, which had fallen earlier in the day, stayed lower after the report. Ten-year yields advanced to 3.59 percent from 3.57 percent late yesterday.

Labor Costs

Unit labor costs, which are adjusted for gains in efficiency, rose 2.1 percent after dropping 1.9 percent in the prior three months. Economists in the Bloomberg survey had projected a 3.5 percent increase.

Hours worked dropped at a 1.5 percent pace, a second consecutive decline and the biggest since the first three months of 2003.

Compensation for each hour worked increased at an annual rate of 3.9 percent, compared with a 4 percent gain the prior quarter.

Productivity for all of 2007 rose 1.6 percent after increasing 1 percent the previous year. Labor costs rose 3.1 percent, the most since 2000.

Productivity at non-financial corporations, a measure watched by former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, rose at a 3.7 percent rate in the third quarter after rising 2.1 percent in the prior three months. The figures are released with a one- quarter lag.

Among manufacturers, productivity increased at a 2.5 percent pace last quarter, following a 4 percent gain.

Productivity gains may be harder to come by as the economy weakens because businesses are usually slow to reduce staff, economists said.

Slower Growth

Economic growth slowed to an annual rate of 0.6 percent in October through December, down from a 4.9 percent pace in the third quarter, according to government figures last week. A report from the Institute for Supply Management yesterday showed service industries unexpectedly contracted in January at the fastest pace since the 2001 recession.

Still, some businesses have already reacted to the demand slowdown. Companies added 1,000 workers to payrolls in January, while government agencies reduced staff. The economy lost 17,000 jobs overall, the first decline in more than four years. Hourly wages rose 0.2 percent last month, less than economists had forecast.

Labor expenses account for about two-thirds of the cost of producing a good or service.

Rate Cuts

Less growth and fewer price pressures will allow Fed policy makers to keep cutting interest rates, economists said.

Central bankers lowered the benchmark rate by a half point on Jan. 30, following an emergency three-quarter-point reduction the prior week. Investors are betting on another half point at or before the next meeting in March, according to futures trading.

Some economists are concerned the productivity surge that began in 1996 is waning. Efficiency increases slowed every year from 2002 to 2006. Last year's 1.6 percent gain compared with an average increase of 2.5 percent since 1995.

In the late 1990s, Greenspan was one of the first to recognize that productivity was accelerating, and that the improvement could help contain inflation even as the economy strengthened and unemployment stayed low. The realization allowed the Fed to keep interest rates little changed from 1996 to 1999.

Higher raw-materials expenses are pushing companies to wring out more productivity. General Mills Inc., the second- largest U.S. cereal maker, is reducing the effect of rising wheat and dairy prices by cutting costs and boosting efficiency, Chief Executive Officer Kendall J. Powell said last month.

``The first line of defense for us is productivity,'' Powell said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Jan. 23 from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

BLOOMBERG