Labor Productivity Measures

Current news release

• Productivity and Cost Measures
• Productivity and Costs

Historical data series available via gopher

• PR - Major Sector Productivity & Costs Index

Data available

• Quarterly and annual levels, indexes, and percent changes for output per hour of all persons and related measures, such as unit labor costs, real and current dollar compensation per hour, and unit nonlabor payments.
• For nonfinancial corporations, data include unit nonlabor costs, total unit costs, and unit profits.
• Data for all persons engaged in the sector as well as for employees alone.
• Monthly employment and employee-hour data are available for a disaggregation of the economy to selected industry subsectors.

Coverage

• Measures for the business, nonfarm business, and manufacturing sectors begin with 1947. Measures for nonfinancial corporations begin with 1958. Manufacturing measures begin with 1977. Measures of employment for industries at a more disaggregated level begin with 1947. Also, some productivity measures for the business and nonfarm business sectors have been linked with data for the 1909-46 period.

Source of data

• Labor input data based mainly on BLS establishment and household surveys.
• Output data based on series prepared as part of the National income and Product Accounts by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the Federal Reserve Board.

Reference period

• Productivity and related measures: Quarterly and annual data.
• Employment and employee-hour measures: Monthly, quarterly, and annual data.

Forms of publication

• Quarterly news releaseùProductivity and Costs: Business, Nonfarm Business, and Manufacturing Sectorsù1 month after reference period; Productivity and Costs: Nonfinancial Corporate Sectorù2 months after reference period. Electronic access available.
• Quarterly and annual review articles in Monthly Labor Review; special analytical articles as completed.
• Statistical tablesùmonthly in Monthly Labor Review and Employment and Earnings; also in Handbook of Labor Statistics.
• Computer listings available quarterly on request.
• Data files available through the BLS Data Diskette program and or tape include current and historical data for major sectors.

Uses

• Economic indicator.
• Aid economic policymakers in assessment of current economic activity and in economic analysis.
• Aid Bureau of Economic Analysis in compiling compensation measures for National Income and Product Accounts.
• Assessment of labor requirements.
• Studies of relationships among productivity, wages, prices, and employment.
• Aid in understanding sources of economic growth.

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