Productivity Revised Up to 2.3% in 3Q

U.S. non-farm productivity grew faster than previously estimated in the third quarter as employers squeezed more output from workers and kept costs contained, a government report showed on Wednesday.

Productivity increased at an annual rate of 2.3% rather than the 1.9% pace reported last month, the Labor Department said, after contracting 1.8% in the second quarter.

The upward revision to third-quarter productivity, a measure of hourly output per worker that is viewed as an indicator of the economy's vitality or lack of it, matched economists' expectations.