US Productivity Drops at 1.9% Rate in 1st Quarter

U.S. worker productivity declined in the first three months of the year as labor costs jumped, reflecting a slowdown in growth.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that productivity, which is the amount of output per hour of work, fell at 1.9 percent rate in the first quarter. Productivity dropped at a 2.1 percent rate in the final three months of 2014.