US third quarter productivity
- Prior was +10.1% (revised to +10.6%)
- Unit labor costs -8.9% vs -11.0% expected
- Prior unit labor costs +9.0% (revised to +8.5%)
The turnaroud in labor costs is because low-wage workers who were furloughed during Q2 lockdowns returned to work, so the composition of the labor force changed. The lockdown and reopening makes it impossible to separate the signal from the noise in this data series.
