(RTTNews) - Thursday morning, the Labor Department released its report on productivity and unit labor costs in the fourth quarter of 2008. While productivity increased by much more than expected, both output and hours worked showed notable declines.

The report showed that non-farm labor productivity jumped 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter following a revised 1.5 percent increase in the third quarter. Economists had been expecting a more modest increase of about 1.5 percent.

At the same time, the Labor Department said that the pace of unit labor cost growth slowed to 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter from a revised 2.6 percent in the previous quarter. Cost growth had been expected to come in at 2.8 percent.

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