Wall Street Journal (08/08/14) Eric Morath; Jonathan House

U.S. worker productivity improved slightly in the second quarter, suggesting that companies relied in part on such productivity to propel the spring’s economic rebound. Employee output climbed at a 2.5% annualized rate, up from a downwardly revised 4.5% rate in the previous three months, and labor costs rose at a 0.6% pace. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast 1.6% growth in productivity and 1.2% growth in labor costs.