Companies across the economy are finding ways to do more with fewer workers, dimming hopes hiring will take off anytime soon.
Employers became leaner and more efficient in the third quarter. Wages, meantime, remain flat or falling. The result is that productivity – output per hour of work – jumped at the fastest pace in six years.
The good news for companies, though, may be bad news for the jobless. As long as companies can get their workers to produce more, they have little reason to hire – at least until consumer spending picks up.
Still, some economists were encouraged by the report. They say that eventually, employers won’t be able to squeeze more from their staffs. They will then have to ramp up hiring.
Productivity rose at an annual rate of 9.5 percent in the July-September quarter, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was much better than the 6.4 percent gain economists had expected.
