Can someone tell me what it means?

[still_one]

Yahoo finance headline:

U.S. Productivity Stronger Than Expected
Tuesday August 10, 9:08 am ET
By Tim Ahmann


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The productivity of U.S. businesses rose at a swifter-than-expected pace in the second quarter but labor costs still gained at their fastest rate in two years, the government said on Tuesday.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/040810/economy_1.html

Wall Street Journal headline:

Worker Productivity Slows
As Labor Costs Accelerate

By JOSEPH REBELLO
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
August 10, 2004 8:46 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The productivity of U.S. workers grew at its slowest pace in 18 months in the second quarter, which spurred a jump in the growth of unit labor costs from earlier this year.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109214070167587473,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us

[amber dog democrat]

1. Its a wash

Zero gain since labor costs cancelled out any benefits from productivity of U.S. businesses. They've got nothing to say and they are saying it.

[liberalmuse]

2. I don't know...

whenever I read or hear 'U.S. Productivity Stronger', I think that less people are doing more work because companies are unwillling to hire more workers, or they just had a lay-off.

[quisp]

3. one word: SPIN

Read Krugman's op-ed: in the Times today for the explanation:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/10/opinion/10krugman.html?hp