Manufacturing Takes 4.9% Rise

Manufacturing productivity shot up 4.9% between April and June, half again as much as previously estimated, the Labor Department said today.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics previously had figured that second-quarter productivity was growing at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.3%, but changed it today to 4.9% after finding that output had increased twice as much as it first thought, while the number of hours worked to produce those goods remained unchanged.