Productivity rebounds, but trend remains weak

Washington

US NON-FARM productivity rebounded in the second quarter, but a weak underlying trend suggested inflation could pick up more quickly than economists have anticipated.

Productivity increased at a 1.3 per cent annual rate in the April-June period, the Labor Department said on Tuesday. But productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, rose only 0.3 per cent from a year ago.

In line with annual revisions to gross domestic product (GDP) published last week, first-quarter productivity was revis…