September 02, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Multifactor productivity in detailed manufacturing industries, 1987-2006

From 1987 to 2006, multifactor productivity—defined as output per unit of combined inputs—rose in 56 of 86 detailed manufacturing industries.

[Chart data—TXT]

Multifactor productivity grew between 0.1 percent and 3.0 percent per year in 53 industries, and exceeded 3 percent per year in only three industries.

The five manufacturing industries with the fastest growth in multifactor productivity were all in the computer and electronic products subsector. The multifactor productivity growth rates of 17.2 percent per year in computer and peripheral equipment and 14.2 percent in semiconductors and electronic components were much faster than those of any other manufacturing industry.

Multifactor productivity declined in 28 industries from 1987 to 2006. However, the average decline over the period was less than 1 percent per year for all but eight industries. The largest decline in multifactor productivity was 1.9 percent per year in accessories and other apparel.

These data are from the BLS Multifactor Productivity program. Productivity data are subject to revision. To learn more, see "Multifactor Productivity Trends for Detailed Industries, 2006," (PDF) (HTML) news release 08-1213. Multifactor productivity indexes relate the change in output to the change in the combination of labor, capital, and intermediate purchases consumed in producing that output. The manufacturing industries in this release are at the four-digit NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) level.