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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (12628)	12/6/2001 11:31:33 AM
From: Ahda	Respond to of 81500

biz.yahoo.com WORK HOURS SLASHED The number of hours that employees worked fell by 3.4 percent during the third quarter, the biggest decline since a 4.8 percent decrease in the first quarter of 1991 when the U.S. was suffering through its last recession. Unit labor costs, a closely watched gauge of wage pressures, rose 2.3 percent in the third quarter, up from the 1.8 percent rise initially reported for the quarter. Customarily, productivity declines during an economic downturn as output usually falls faster than hours worked. Firms have been adjusting to the current downswing in economic activity by cutting hours, helping to support productivity in the face of a 2.0 percent decrease in output during the third quarter, a much bigger drop than the 1.0 percent decrease first estimated. Compared with a year ago, nonfarm productivity was up 1.5 percent during the third quarter. That was less than half the 3.3 percent annual rate of growth in productivity recorded for all of 2000.