As productivity slows, wage costs tend to rise -- one has an inverse relation to the other.

Productivity always slows as the economy slows. If labor and wage costs are still on the rise and productivity slows, either corporate profits decline or prices increase.

As long as the productivity numbers are very good, the higher wage gains can be offset by higher productivity gains,

When the economy slows, people tend not to go on holiday, but they will spend more on small-ticket items like eating out.

unanticipated rise in fuel costs.

Because of the lack of interoperability, we can lose billions of dollars in productivity,