US Labor Productivity Suffers Biggest Drop on Record in the Second Quarter of 2022

Michael Clifford, a company truck driver from Utah, waits in life for his entry papers at a transportation logistics company in Long Beach, Calif., on July 26, 2022. Clifford said he thinks California's new state labor law redefining owner-operators as employees will hurt the industry long term. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

U.S. non-farm labor productivity sank 4.6 percent, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, in the second quarter of 2022, 3 percent below the decline in the previous quarter, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report on Aug. 9.

U.S. non-farm business output, which is about 75 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), decreased by 2.1 percent during the second quarter, while hours worked increased by 2.6 percent, at half the pace of the previous quarter.

This is a sign that the American economy, as measured by GDP, has shrunk for a second consecutive quarter.