Zero Productivity Growth: Preemptive Strike

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I know that I usually comment on the news after it's been reported, but I don't want to have to write tomorrow about how reporters missed a big story. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that productivity growth for the 3rd quarter was zero. I am always the first one to point out that quarterly productivity is poorly measured and highly erratic, but the rate of productivity growth over the last year was just 1.3 percent. This number will be revised down by another 0.2-0.3 percentage points when the 800,000 additional jobs from the benchmark revision to the establishment survey are included in the data. The continuation of the economy's strong productivity growth over the last five years had been the big story of this recovery. At the least, the recent data point to a serious cyclical downturn in productivity growth. This should be front page news tomorrow. I don't want to have to write about what is not there.

--Dean Baker

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