The release of revised data puts productivity growth over the last three years at 1.2 percent annually. This is below the 1.5 percent rate of the long 1973-1995 productivity slowdown. It's always possible that growth will bounce back (a downward revision to the jobs numbers will help), but the evidence that the 1995 upturn is over keeps mounting. This is REALLY big news. USA Today flunks bigtime with an article headlined "Productivity Up." That is not the news in this quarter's report.
--Dean Baker