Nov. 6--At Marlin Steel Wire Products, a manufacturer of wire baskets in Baltimore, orders and productivity are up. In fact, the 29-person firm this week received its biggest contract of the year, which is expected to represent 10 percent of its annual sales.

While his competitors have cut workers, president Drew Greenblatt decided to invest in new technology and hire employees to boost his business.

"Our sales are going to be up 40 percent over last year, but our employees are up 20 percent," he said, noting he has hired five workers this year.

Nationwide, labor productivity in the third quarter grew at its fastest pace in six years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. But the increase came at the expense of jobs, hours and wages.

The amount of output per hour worked rose 9.5 percent during the July to September period, the highest since a 9.7 percent increase in the third quarter of 2003, the government said. Productivity is calculated by dividing an index of output by an index of work hours of all people, including employees, business owners and unpaid family workers.

The manufacturing sector, in particular, got a huge productivity boost of 13.6 percent during the quarter.

The figures were good news for companies as they got more out of their workers amid an economic recovery. But unit labor costs fell at a 5.2 percent rate.

The drop in unit labor costs in the third quarter marked the third straight decline as companies continued to lay off workers. In short, workers are doing more with less.

"What's happening is that people who have jobs are working very hard to keep them," said Kathryn Bartol, professor of management and organization at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. "There are two issues: trying to help their organizations survive and, in the process, preserve their jobs. This means that employees are willing to work harder and look for ways to streamline operations and increase productivity."

Employers have been using different strategies to stay afloat amid the recession, including cutting jobs, hours and pay as well as joining forces with competitors. A few are bucking the trend by trying to grow by hiring new workers and investing in technology and other resources.

This week, Towson-based tool maker Black & Decker announced plans to merge with The Stanley Works in a $4.5 billion all-stock deal that will reduce the number of local jobs. Although both companies say the economy had nothing to do with the decision to merge, the deal is expected to lower costs by $350 million over three years.