WASHINGTON – U.S. worker productivity shrank in the final three months of last year, mostly because of temporary factors that dragged down growth.

Productivity contracted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.9 percent in the October-December quarter, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's about the same as last month's estimate of a 2 percent decline. It followed a 3.1 percent gain in the July-September quarter.

Productivity is the amount of output per hour of work. It shrank because economic activity barely expanded in the fourth quarter, while hours worked rose at a solid pace.