The rise in labor costs, the largest since 2014, follows a 9.8 percent increase in the January-March quarter. Productivity mostly lagged during the record long 11-year expansion that followed the Great Recession, confounding economists. From 2000 to 2007, the year the Great Recession began, annual productivity gains averaged 2.7 percent. But since then, productivity has slowed to about half that pace, rising at an average annual rate of 1.4 percent from 2007 through 2019. Economists have warned that the economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus would likely hinder productivity in coming quarters.-AP

Source: The Standard August 14, 2020 13:52 UTC