by Alan Cordova

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Alan Cordova/NPR

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that productivity in the non-farm business sector rose by 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2008. Sounds like good news? Maybe not.

The reason, as the BLS explains it, is that the total number of hours worked fell faster than the total economic output. Something economist Howard Rosen warned us about when we talked to him about furloughs on the podcast. The above chart is based on BLS data that tracks indices for productivity and compensation (all were 100 in 1992).