June 03, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Factory productivity growth in first quarter 2005

Productivity in the manufacturing sector—as measured by output per hour—increased at a revised seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.4 percent in the first quarter of 2005. The preliminary estimate, published in early May, was 3.9 percent.

Previous and revised productivity and related measures, manufacturing, first quarter 2005 (quarterly percent change at seasonally adjusted annual rate)
[Chart data—TXT]

Output in manufacturing grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the first quarter; the preliminary estimate was 3.3 percent.

Hours of all persons were down 0.9 percent; initially a decrease of 0.7 percent was reported.

These data are from the BLS Productivity and Costs program. Data in this report are seasonally adjusted annual rates. These estimates are subject to revision. Additional information is available in "Productivity and Costs, First Quarter 2005, Revised" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-964.