|
CNBC'S MOST SHARED
- 'We're in the Middle of a Crash': Black Swan
- A Goldman Trading Scandal?
- The Rising Mountain of Debt May Be the Next Crisis
- SEC May Reinstate Rules for Short-Selling Stocks
- Latvian Banker Taking Souls as Collateral
- Cuddle Parties Heat Up
- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin Will Resign
- Malaysia PM Speaks to CNBC
- The Worst Expected 2010 State Budget Gaps
- BOJ Shirakawa: Japan Corporate Finance Still Tight
- China Reassures on Dollar Debate Before G8
- Obama Heads to Moscow for 'Reset' Summit
- Alcoa to Post Loss — What Does This Mean?
- A Goldman Trading Scandal?
- Top Videos: From the Black Swan to the Bond King

- Obama Plan Would Trim Back Financial Powerhouses
- Biden: 'We Misread How Bad The Economy Was'
- FedEx Sees Signs of a Turnaround: Report
- Market 360: The Week's Best & Worst
- Fireworks At Pharma's Market
- Value of Warren Buffett's Annual Gift to Gates Foundation Falls Along With Berkshire's Stock
- Michael Jackson: The Music And The Money
- Five Stock Picks for This Market
- Realities of the New Obama Refis
- Weak Dollar Means Gold at $1,040: Strategist
- Court Ruling Could Mean Trouble for TiVo
- Lance, Please Back Out Of Tour
U.S. productivity in the fourth quarter rose at a stronger-than-expected pace as the biggest cutback in working hours in nearly five years helped restrain growth in labor costs, a U.S. Labor Department report showed on Wednesday.
U.S. non-farm productivity, or hourly output per worker, rose at a 1.8 percent annual rate in the fourth-quarter, news that may help comfort a Federal Reserve that has shifted its focus away from inflation to slash interest rates in recent weeks to curb slowing growth.
The Labor Department also revised third-quarter productivity downward to an annual rate of 6 percent from its previously reported rise of 6.3 percent -- still the strongest gain in four years.
Economists polled by Reuters expected fourth-quarter nonfarm worker productivity to rise just 0.4 percent, with unit labor costs up 3.5 percent.
Unit labor costs, a gauge of inflation and profit pressures under close scrutiny by the Fed, rose 2.1 percent, the largest gain since the first quarter of 2007, when they rose 5.2 percent.
The drop in third-quarter unit labor costs also was revised to a 1.9 percent drop from a 2 percent decline.








