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 WASHINGTON (AP) - The growth in worker productivity slowed in the first three months of this year but so did wages, providing evidence that a slowing economy is holding down inflation.
The Labor Department reported that productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, rose at an annual rate of 1.7 percent in the January-to-March quarter, down from a 2.1 percent rise in the final three months of last year.
Wages slowed even more sharply with unit labor costs rising at a 0.6 percent rate, compared with a 6.2 percent surge in the final three months of last year when year-end bonuses for high-income workers inflated the number.
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