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Mix-Ansicht- US-Produktivität sinkt - Sascha, 05.06.2001, 15:18
US-Produktivität sinkt
<font size=5>U.S. productivity tumbles</font>
Output per hour shrank at 1.2% rate, biggest decline in eight years
June 5, 2001: 9:05 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - <font color="#FF0000">American workers' productivity posted its biggest drop in eight years in the first quarter</font>, the government said Tuesday, reflecting the <font color="#FF0000">sharp slowdown in the world's largest economy</font>.
Productivity, a measure of worker output per hour, fell at a revised 1.2 percent rate in the quarter, the Labor Department said, after growing a revised 2 percent in the fourth quarter. Wall Street forecasts were for a revised drop of 0.7 percent, according to Briefing.com.
Meanwhile, <font color="#FF0000">labor costs rose at the fastest pace in nearly four years </font>in the quarter, the department said.
Slowing productivity and rising labor costs could make the Federal Reserve less aggressive when it considers cutting interest rates at its meeting set for June 26-27. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan watches the productivity numbers closely, economists say, since rising productivity helps companies boost output, and profits, and keep a lid on wage costs.
"(These data are) bad news for (corporate profit) margins or future inflation -- or both," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist with High Frequency Economics Ltd.
The Fed, the nation's central bank, <font color="#FF0000">has cut rates five times this year, each time by an aggressive half percentage point</font>, in a bid to revive the sluggish economy and avoid a recession.
In its report, the Labor Department said <font color="#FF0000">unit labor costs, a key gauge of inflationary pressures in the economy, rose at a 6.3 percent rate in the quarter, up from a revised 4.5 percent rate the prior quarter. It was the biggest increase since a 5.5 percent jump in the fourth quarter of 1997</font>.
Last month, the government initially estimated that productivity fell 0.1 percent and unit labor costs rose at a 5.2 percent rate in the first quarter.
[b] Quelle: http://www.cnnfn.com
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