Productivity Ends 6-Month Fall

A sharp drop in labor costs, including the lowest hourly wage and benefit gains in 38 years, improved the nation’s economic productivity for the first quarter of 1987, reversing six months of declines, the government said today.

Non-farm business productivity rose at an annual rate of 1.7% in January, February and March combined as hourly wages and benefits, after accounting for inflation, dropped at an annual rate of 4.9%, the Labor Department said.