Business productivity surged in the third quarter, far outpacing Wall Street forecasts, and an unexpected decline in labor costs helped ease inflation worries.
Non-farm productivity, or worker output per hour, grew at a 4.1 percent annual rate from July to September and second-quarter gains were revised higher to 2.1 percent, the Labor Department said in a report on Thursday. Analysts had expected productivity to rise at a 2.5 percent pace after a previously estimated 1.8 percent second-quarter advance.
