Labour productivity in Canadian businesses fell by 0.1% between July and September, slightly less than the 0.3% decline posted in the second quarter, Statistics Canada said today.

This was the second straight decline following seven consecutive quarters of positive growth.

The government agency said that losses in the manufacturing and construction sectors completely offset productivity gains in mining; oil-and-gas extraction; rental, financial, insurance and real-estate services, as well as wholesale trade.

Productivity – the ratio of gross domestic product to the number of hours worked – posted an average quarterly growth of 0.5% in the United States in the first three quarters of 2006, while Canada’s average growth remained at zero.

In the last two quarters, production advanced at exactly the same pace (0.4%), while the number of hours worked grew at a more robust rate than production, increasing by 0.7% in the second quarter and 0.6% in the third quarter.