Even though the economy feels largely fine right now, such a decline has been a leading indicator of past recessions.
Labor productivity has fallen for five straight quarters on a year-over-year basis, the longest such streak on record.
Productivity is important to the economy because it's the primary input for a population's standard of living.
As Insider reported in March, major retailers like Walmart, Target, and Kroger are locked in a labor-hoarding war over hourly employees that's pushed pay higher.
In the meantime, the decline in productivity is setting off alarm bells for the economy.
Persons:
—, Taylor Swift, they're, Larry Summers, Summers, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Benioff, OpenAI's, there's, It's, Paul Tudor Jones, Ed Yardeni, Goldman Sachs
Organizations:
Service, Airlines, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor, Washington Post, Walmart, Target, Kroger, Stanford, MIT, Fortune, Brookings Institute