U.S. Productivity, Increased Efficiency Continue to Aid Corporate Bottom Lines

Filed under: Forecasts, Economic Data

An excellent interpretative report by Bloomberg News Friday summarized the two-edged sword nature of continued U.S. productivity growth, and it's one investors should review.



Here's the low-down:



U.S. worker productivity, which increased 1.3% in the third quarter, is creating even-more-lean U.S. corporations. Productivity has also risen at an impressive 3.4% annualized rate over the past five quarters.



Moreover, companies are finding new ways to increase output with the same resources, or in other cases do the same with less. One example is the Campbell Soup Company (CPB), which, among other operational improvements, found ways to more-efficiently mix ingredients and revise production to respond to shifting demand for soup brands. Last year, Campbell's goal was to cut production costs by $80 million through efficiency improvements. How'd they do? The company cut costs by $86 million!

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U.S. Productivity, Increased Efficiency Continue to Aid Corporate Bottom Lines originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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