Analysis – Labor market to weather productivity plunge

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A plunge in the productivity of businesses late final yr will more than likely dent company income, however not sufficient to instructed firms to chop back on hiring. Nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per employee, fell at its quickest % in 4 years in the fourth quarter, the government reported remaining week. The drop led unit labor prices – the price of labor for any given unit of production – to surge four.6 %, a sign of increased revenue pressures. …