Thursday, October 29, 2009

Productivity Surges in Q3, Again

For almost a year now, I have characterized this recession as "labor falling, productivity rising." This morning's national accounts release for Q3 confirms that the same pattern continues, because real GDP GREW while hours FELL (productivity is the ratio of real GDP to hours).

For those interested in total factor productivity, note that nonresidential investment is fairly low, and therefore not adding significantly to the capital stock. I haven't done the exactly calculation yet, but expect that total factor productivity grew at a (high) rate very similar to average labor productivity.

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