Productivity Dives, Goes Negative For First Time Since 2008

More government employees, less in the private sector would be my guess.

US nonfarm productivity dived 0.9% in Q2 vs 3.9% in Q1.

The market was looking for growth of 0.1%.

The culprit: higher labor prices! Are we seeing wage inflation with nearly 10% unemployment?

It marks the first time that productivity went negative since q4 2008.

And then there's this: Small business optimism sags in July.