MEMO: CREDIT USE DOWN FOR FIRST TIME IN FOUR YEARS

Consumers, worried about their jobs in the face of layoffs, cut back their borrowing in June, making credit use fall for the first time in nearly four years.

Consumer credit declined by a seasonally adjusted $1.6 billion in June, or a 1.2 percent annual rate, the Federal Reserve reported Tuesday. The pullback reflected a drop in nonrevolving credit, such as loans for new cars, vacations and other big-ticket items.

Elsewhere, worker productivity, a key measure of living standards, had its best showing in a year in the second quarter.

Worker productivity the amount of output per hour of work rose at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the April-June quarter, the department reported Tuesday. A revision turned a negative first-quarter figure into a tiny 0.1 percent growth rate.