Non-farm productivity up 2.6 percent

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WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday non-farm labor productivity in the fourth quarter of 2010 rose at an annual rate of 2.6 percent.

The figure was unchanged from a previous estimate released a month ago.

The bureau said output rose 4 percent in the quarter, while hours worked increased 1.4 percent.

Unit labor costs -- the cost of labor compared to productivity -- was unchanged at minus 0.6 percent.

The figure drops when productivity increases faster than hours worked.

Investors will see the report as positive. Economists had expected unit costs to be revised to a drop of 0.4 percent with a rise in productivity of 2.3 percent, as the government had revised its fourth-quarter gross domestic product figure 0.4 percentage points lower in late February to 2.8 percent.