American businesses boosted their productivity at a 9.5% annual rate in the third quarter, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported.

The Associated Press notes that it's the fastest growth in productivity in six years, and came as " labor costs continued to drop sharply" — a factor that "will bolster companies' profits but continue to saddle workers with stagnant incomes."

In better news on the employment front, BLS also says that 512,000 people filed first-time claims for jobless benefits last week. That was down by 20,000 from the previous week.

The week's big news about the economy, of course, will be tomorrow's report from the Labor Department on the October unemployment rate and how many jobs businesses (presumably) cut last month. It's due at 8:30 a.m. ET.

In September (according to BLS' preliminary estimates) the jobless rate was 9.8% and businesses shed 263,000 jobs.

Planet Money tracks the economy here.