US productivity up 9.4% in Q3 2003

Productivity - the amount an employee produces for each hour worked - rose at a 9.4% annual rate in the Q3, the Labor Department said. That rate was stronger than the 8.1% gain initially estimated a month ago for the July-September period. And it is up from a 7% growth rate posted in the second quarter of the year. Most private analysts had expected the productivity figures would be revised higher: the consensus among economists was a gain of 9.2%. But no one expects those sorts of gains to continue.