Productivity

Who: Bureau of Labor Statistics

When: One month after each quarter

What: Productivity is defined as the ratio of output to input. Simply put it is how efficient labor is at producing the economy's goods and services. Unit Labor costs reflect labor costs of producing each unit of output and provide information on emerging wage pressures.

Why: Higher Productivity allows firms to produce more with an equal amount of labor. If fewer workers are needed, the inflation pressure on wages will be lower. The Productivity report is not a timely report as it is only released quarterly and most of the information in the report has already been released in other reports. The report does provide the best overall picture of the economy's efficiency.