Multifactor Productivity Measures

Current news release

• Multifactor Productivity Trends

Historical time series available via gopher

• MP - Multifactor Productivity Measures

Data available

• Annual indexes of multifactor productivity and output per unit of capital services.
• Annual measures of capital services, composition adjusted labor services, and of combined labor and capital inputs.
• Annual multi-factor productivity measures for public utilities and for manufacturing industries which include labor, capital, energy, materials, and purchased business services inputs.

Coverage

• Private business, private nonfarm business, and manufacturing sectors, beginning with 1948.

Sources of data

• Labor hours data based mainly on BLS establishment and household surveys. Labor composition data are largely based on household surveys and the decennial census.
• Output and other input data based on series prepared as part of the National Income and Product Accounts by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce. Capital data based on measures of equipment and structures, land, and inventories prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics from data of the Bureau of Economic Analysis and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Measures of energy, materials, and purchased business services inputs are from the Annual Survey of Manufacturers, input-output tables provided by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and annual input-out tables developed by this office.

Reference period

Forms of publication

• Annual news releaseùMultifactor Productivity Indexes for the Private Business, Private Nonfarm Business, and Manufacturing Sectors. Electronic access available.
• Periodic review articles in the Monthly Labor Review.
• Bulletins, special analytical articles in the Monthly Labor Review, and staff papers.
• Unpublished measuresùavailable on requestùcontaining information on the components of the labor, capital, and output measures prepared as part of the multifactor program.
• Data files available through the BLS Data Diskette program and or tapeùcurrent and historical data.

Uses

• Economic indicator.
• Basis for research on the sources of productivity advance and the identification of policy options which can affect the pace of productivity change.
• Aid in understanding trends in output per hour of all persons.
• Provides a more comprehensive productivity measure, supplementing existing economic indicators, that incorporates capital in addition to labor inputs.

Major research in progress

• Continued investigation of factors which affect labor input, for example, how changes in the levels of education and work experience change the effective quantity of labor services per hour.
• Investigation of the effect of research and development on productivity growth. Measures of the inter-industry contribution of R&D expenditures to productivity.
• Investigation of the effects of market disequilibrium on measures of productivity. Development of models of how short-term equilibrium differs from long-term equilibrium and its impact on the measures of inputs and weights used in a growth accounting framework.
• Examination of how changes in capacity utilization should be incorporated into the productivity framework.
• Research on the treatment of inventories in a growth accounting framework. Investigation of the role of inventories as an input and the measurement of their contribution to output and productivity.

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