The BLS’s quarterly productivity and cost releases don’t make for the most compelling reading, but I do generally try to cover them because they’re germane in the current macro environment.

On Thursday, the preliminary estimates for Q3 showed unit labor costs overshot materially, rising 1.9% against expectations for a much smaller gain. Notably, Q2‘s ULC headline was revised sharply higher to show a 2.4% advance. That tally stood at just 0.4% prior to the update.

The release incorporated the NIPA revisions which, without wanting to overstate the case, were a game-changer of sorts. Thursday’s figures were yet another instance of key macro aggregates revised to paint a dramatically different picture — in this case, the implication is that Americans enjoyed far larger compensation increases than previously reported over the past four quarters.

In the figure, the red stepped area shows the quarterly ULC SAAR prints as they stood prior to Thursday’s release. As you can see, pay gains were underestimated by a pretty significant margin.

If you’re wondering how Americans were able to save and/or spend more than expected in recent quarters, that’s one plausible answer.

Recall that the “final” (and plainly that’s a misnomer) read on last quarter’s YoY ULC print — i.e., the seasonally adjusted change from the same quarter a year ago — was the slowest in over a decade at just 0.3%. Now, after Thursday’s revision, that stands at 3.2%.

As the figure shows, the ostensible read-across for underlying consumer price growth from the ULC prints is now completely different. Before, unit labor costs tipped additional disinflation. Now, they suggest the opposite.

You can make of that what you will, but the simple takeaway is that the new figures are suggestive of lingering upside inflation risk. And in that context, I’d be remiss not to note that most observers — even some who might otherwise be inclined to support Donald Trump’s agenda — are wary of the inflationary read-through of his economic agenda for an economy that’s hot to the touch.

Not surprisingly given the ULC overshoot, productivity undershot, showing a 2.2% increase for Q3 versus 2.5% expected. Measured against the same quarter a year ago, productivity rose 2% in Q3, the weakest in five quarters.