OTTAWA -- Canadian productivity fell 0.2% in the third quarter as working hours increased and output declined, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday.

Economists had expected a decline of between 0.3 and 0.4% drop in the quarter. The federal agency revised its reading for the second quarter from flat to a gain of 0.1%.

Productivity is a measure of what an employee produces in an hour of work.

Gross domestic product of businesses slipped 0.1% during the July-to-September-to period, following big declines in the previous three quarters, the agency said.

Hours worked rose 0.2% -- the first increase since the first quarter of 2008.

“Productivity has been basically flat over the past year . . . as GDP managed to barely rise in the quarter,” Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, said ahead of Tuesday’s report.