The labour productivity of Canadian businesses advanced just 0.2% in the third quarter, the same as reported in the previous quarter, Statistics Canada reported today.

The third-quarter productivity growth rate was also down from 0.6% in the first quarter. And it was well behind the 1.6% third-quarter increase in U.S. productivity.

“The modest productivity performance in the third quarter, combined with the strength of the Canadian dollar, again drove up the unit cost of Canadian labour expressed in U.S. dollars, although to a lesser degree than in the second quarter,” StatsCan said in a release.

“This continued to have a negative impact on the competitiveness of Canadian businesses compared with their U.S. counterparts.”

Manufacturing productivity slumped 0.6% during the quarter, as production fell 0.7%, hampered by the sharp appreciation of the Canadian dollar, while the number of factory hours worked declined 0.1%.

Overall labour cost per unit of production, a measure of inflationary wage pressure, continued to ease during the third quarter, rising 0.3% compared with 0.7% in the second quarter.