Did I read this right?
From Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal (p. A6, “Labor Costs…”):
The Labor Department reported yesterday that … unit labor costs fell at a 2.4% rate during the second quarter, rather than growing at the originally estimated 5.4% pace.
Labels: data, economics, inflation, labor, macroeconomics, US economic outlook
posted by knzn at 12/07/2006 08:21:00 PM
7 Comments:
You read it right. BLS Revised the nonfarm business sector’s unit labor costs to a - 2.4% for the second quarter, from an original estimated 5.4%.
BLS also revised the unit labor costs for manufacturing sector from the original 1.2% to -8.3%.
Unbelievable, isn’t it?
I wonder how much of this is attributable to wage declines, if any, and what proportion to increases in efficiency, if any.
Time for them to start reporting error bounds, but then no one would pay attention to what they are not saying.
And what they're not saying is probly the most important stuff...
I wonder whether there is a one-time adjustment to the base size of the labor force...
Maybe people started working fewer hours and became more productive at the hours they did work...all that overtime must have an adverse effect on productivity.
Knzn,
What are your thoughts on Ed Prescott's "macroeconomic myths" in todays wall street journal?
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