The way I look at it, we did well, all things considered. If you recall, we set our commitments last year at a time when our economy was on its way to hitting its best GDP growth rate in 31 years and inflation eventually averaging out at 2.8%, the lowest annual rate in 21 years.
One implication of these productivity gains was that, for much of the current expansion, businesses were able to meet increasing sales with management efficiencies rather than with a large number of new hires. Another implication was that unit labor costs of businesses fell, even as the economy was gathering momentum.