News In Brief

Productivity stood still in 3rd quarter, US says

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics said Monday that worker productivity in the nonfarm business sector showed no change from July 1 to Sept. 30. It was the first time since the second quarter of 1982 that there has been no improvement in this economic barometer, another sign of a slowdown in the nation's economy.

The report did show, however, that when agriculture was included in the efficiency gauge, overall US private business productivity advanced at an annual rate of 1.7 percent.