WASHINGTON—U.S. unit labor costs surged in the third quarter, while productivity declined at its sharpest pace since 1981, adding to signs that high inflation could last for a while.
The Labor Department said on Thursday that unit labor costs, the price of labor per single unit of output, increased at an 8.3 percent annualized rate last quarter after rising at a 1.1 percent pace in the April-June quarter. Outside the coronavirus distortions in 2020, the jump in labor costs last quarter was the largest since the first quarter of 2014.
