Photo: Productivity, or non-farm business employee output per hour, rose at a 2.2 percent annualized rate in the July-to-September period.

U.S. labor costs grew at a surprisingly strong pace in the third quarter, and was much stronger than previously thought earlier this year, which risks fanning inflationary pressures. Unit labor costs, or what a business pays employees to produce one unit of output, increased at a 1.9 percent annualized rate, following significant upward revisions to prior quarters, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed Thursday.

The BLS said that the release incorporated revised historical data for the past five years, which informs the statistics. The revisions point to much stronger pay gains for Americans in recent quarters, underscoring why consumers have been able to power the economy forward at a robust clip.

Price-adjusted hourly compensation picked up to a 3 percent pace in the July-to-September period, marking a seventh straight quarter where pay has outpaced inflation.

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to Treasury & Risk, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited Treasury & Risk content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Thought leadership on regulatory changes, economic trends, corporate success stories, and tactical solutions for treasurers, CFOs, risk managers, controllers, and other finance professionals
  • Informative weekly newsletter featuring news, analysis, real-world case studies, and other critical content
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.