The BLS Productivity & Costs report for Q2 2016 shows labor productivity decreased -0.5% annualized. Output increased 1.2% and hours worked increased 1.8%. Unit Labor costs increased only 0.5% in Q2 2015. The reason labor productivity declined was because economic output grew less than worked hours. For the 2015 year, annual productivity rose 0.9%.
The BLS Productivity & Costs report for Q2 2015 shows labor productivity increased 1.3% annualized. Output increased 2.8% and hours worked increased 1.5%. Unit Labor costs increased only 0.5% in Q2 2015. The reason labor productivity rose was because economic output grew more than worker hours. Both Q4 2014 and Q1 2015 showed decreases in labor productivity.
The BLS Productivity & Costs report for Q3 2014 shows labor productivity increased 2.0% annualized. Output increased 4.4% and hours worked increased 2.3%. Unit Labor costs increased only 0.3% in Q3 2014. The reason labor productivity rose was because economic output grew more than worker hours. Overall labor is still getting squeezed for more efficiency and wages are still repressed.
The BLS Productivity & Costs report for Q3 2013 shows labor productivity increased a whopping annualized 3.0%. This is the largest increase in productivity since Q4 2009. Output increased 4.7% and hours worked increased 1.7%. Unit Labor costs dropped by -1.4% in Q3 2013. The reason labor productivity surged was increased economic output while worker hours did not increase as much.
The Q1 2013 Productivity & Costs revision shows labor productivity increased an annualized 0.5%. Output increased 2.1% and hours worked increased 1.6%. Hourly compensation dropped -3.8% in Q1 2013. This is the largest quarterly decline for wages in history. Between the numbers lies even more bad news for workers. Labor is simply getting squeezed to death as workers created more while being paid less. This quarterly report also shows there is no worker shortage for compensation would surely rise if demand for workers exceeded supply.
The Q2 2012 Productivity & Costs revision shows Labor productivity increased an annualized +2.2% instead of +1.6%. Output was revised to +2.4% from +2.0% and hours worked were downgraded to +0.1% instead of the originally reported +0.4%. The revisions continue to show bad news for workers, more output for less hours means worker squeeze and less hires and it's worse than we thought with these revisions.
The Q2 2012 Productivity & Costs report shows Labor productivity increased +1.6% from Q1 2012, annualized. Output increased +2.0% and hours worked increased +0.4%. This report shows more bad news for workers, more output for less hours means worker squeeze and less hires. Graphed below is business, nonfarm labor productivity per quarter.
The BEA released their breakdown of pay, or county compensation by industry for 2009. For all U.S. workers, total compensation contracted 3.2% for 2009. Compensation declined in two-thirds of the 3,113 counties in the U.S. Can you say out of a job and broke? The report is worth reading just for the maps. Below is the BEA percent change county compensation map for 2009.
In my opinion the legislation was all for show and had no real provisions to limit executive pay for bailed out financial institutions but now we have an even worse situation.
CBS MarketWatch is reporting the Treasury released interim rules for the banks receiving the $250 Billion
Some of the corporate governance and executive compensation rules in the original bailout legislation have since been softened by interim final rules drawn up by the Treasury as part of its plan to inject capital into banks.
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