Rising productivity has renewed hopes that heavy investment in artificial intelligence could start to deliver broader economic gains, according to new government data.
Business-sector worker productivity strengthened in the third quarter, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Nov. 5.
Nonfarm productivity—a measure of hourly output per worker—increased at an annualized rate of 3.6 percent in the July–September period.
This marked the strongest increase since the third quarter of 2025 and blew past the consensus forecast of 2.8 percent.
Hours worked ticked up by just 0.1 percent, signaling higher output compared with labor input.
Productivity gains were concentrated in the durable-goods sector, with output up by almost 4 percent versus a 1.6 percent increase in hours worked. Nondurable goods output slipped by almost 2 percent and hours worked edged up by 0.1 percent….