New figures show that US productivity fell unexpectedly in the second quarter of this year for the first time since late 2008.
The Labor Department said non-farm productivity declined 0.9% in the April-June period, the first fall since the last quarter of 2008, when productivity shrank by 0.1%.
'The decline in output per hour follows five quarters of strong productivity growth,' it said in a report. Most economists had expected labour productivity - based on output of workers per hour - to rise 0.1% from the upwardly revised 3.9% growth in the January-March period.
Labour costs increased 0.2% in the second quarter, the first rise in a year, though the rise was smaller than markets had expected. Some analysts suggested this signalled that firms were oversupplied with labour and would have little motivation to hire new workers.
Government data last week showed the US shedding more jobs than expected in July, heightening fears that the world's largest economy will take years to fully recover from a crippling recession.
