U.S. Q1 2026 worker productivity revised sharply lower
Key takeaways
- Output growth was the main factor behind the revision, falling to 1.0% from the prior estimate of 1.5%, while hours worked held steady at 0.7%.
- The first-quarter reading for nonfarm business unit labor costs came in at a 1.8% annualized rate, trimmed from an earlier estimate of 2.3%.
- For the fourth quarter of 2025, unit labor costs were marked down sharply, to 2.1% from an initial figure of 4.6%.
U.S. Q1 2026 worker productivity revised sharply lower Quartz · Bloomberg / Getty Images Colleen Cabili Thu, June 4, 2026 at 9:47 PM GMT+7 2 min read Nonfarm business sector labor productivity grew at an annualized rate of 0.3% in the first quarter of 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday, a larger-than-expected downward revision from the preliminary estimate of 0.8%.
Output growth was the main factor behind the revision, falling to 1.0% from the prior estimate of 1.5%, while hours worked held steady at 0.7%. A Reuters survey of economists had placed the expected revision at a 0.5% rate.
The first-quarter reading for nonfarm business unit labor costs came in at a 1.8% annualized rate, trimmed from an earlier estimate of 2.3%. Hourly compensation increased 2.1% in the quarter. The result fell well short of the 2.5% rate that economists surveyed by Reuters had anticipated.