---
title: "CNBC: US preliminary Q4 productivity down 0.1%, vs 1.0% increase expected"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/436931b5-3535-42ba-948e-1d42d1187715
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/cnbc-us-preliminary-q4-productivity-down-01-vs-10-increase-expected-2705412
category: "General"
published: 2018-02-01T20:15:02.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:52:24.513Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/8ae66d49e52b8fe48c1baded5ccb16894768.jpg
---

# CNBC: US preliminary Q4 productivity down 0.1%, vs 1.0% increase expected

**TL;DR:** US preliminary Q4 productivity declined 0.1% in 2017, citing a shortage of workers as the obstacle to economic growth. Nonfarm productivity fell at a 0.1 percent annualized rate October through December.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2018-02-01. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/cnbc-us-preliminary-q4-productivity-down-01-vs-10-increase-expected-2705412).*

## Story

A recent CNBC article outlined a fourth quarter decline of productivity in 2017, citing a shortage of workers as the obstacle to economic growth. Nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, unexpectedly fell at a 0.1 percent annualized rate October through December.

According to CNBC, “Hours worked increased at a rate of 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter, the fastest in three years, after rising at a 1.2 percent pace in the third quarter. Unit labor costs, the price of labor per single unit of output, rose at a pace of 2.0 percent pace in the final three months of 2017 after slipping at a rate of 0.1 percent in the third quarter.”

This is the weakest performance since the first quarter of 2016.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- General (sector)
- economic growth (topic)
- worker shortage (topic)
- productivity decline (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/cnbc-us-preliminary-q4-productivity-down-01-vs-10-increase-expected-2705412). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/436931b5-3535-42ba-948e-1d42d1187715).