Output per hour worked dropped 0.5 per cent in the first quarter, after slumping 0.3 per cent in the previous quarter, Statistics Canada reported. Companies produced less output even though their employees logged more hours. (The Logic)

Talking point: Productivity—the best gauge of an economy’s ability to generate wealth—has now fallen in three of the past four quarters. That removes the sheen from revised data at the end of last year that made the productivity crisis look less severe. Getting a handle on the productivity numbers has been complicated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Average quarterly growth since the end of 2021, when the index returned to its pre-pandemic level, is now zero. Over a comparable amount of time between 2016 and the end of 2019, the average was 0.3 per cent. It’s debatable whether Canada is in a recession. There’s no debate that its workers are generating little momentum.

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