Costs drop in latest productivity data

  • Prior was +2.9% (revised to +3.4%)

  • Unit labor costs +2.9% vs +2.4% exp

  • Prior productivity +0.4% (revised to +0.3%)

  • Real hourly earnings +0.3%

  • Compensation per hour +2.0%

The rise in productivity was the fastest in three years while labor costs fell. The political spin here is that the tax cut spurred investment that boosted productivity but there's a lot of noise in productivity data.