U.S. nonfarm businesses produced more in the third quarter while total hours changed little. In its preliminary November 5 release, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that output rose at a 3.7 percent annual rate, compared with a 0.1 percent increase in hours.

That gap yielded an estimated 3.6 percent annualized increase in output per hour. The comparison with the same quarter a year earlier was smaller: productivity was up 2.1 percent. The two rates use different time periods and should not be read as competing estimates.

Hourly compensation increased at a 2.9 percent annual rate. With productivity rising faster, the agency reported that labor costs per unit of output fell 0.7 percent at an annual rate. They were still 2.4 percent higher than a year earlier.

The figures cover the nonfarm business sector and are preliminary. They describe aggregate changes in output, hours and compensation; they do not identify which technologies or business practices caused the change.