September 7, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Productivity figure revised upward

Productivity in the nonfarm business sector, as measured by output per hour, was revised upward from 5.3 to 5.7 percent at a seasonally adjusted annual rate during the second quarter of 2000. Productivity rose at a 1.9 percent rate in the first quarter.

Growth in output per hour of all persons, nonfarm business, seasonally adjusted, 1998 III-2000 II (Percent change from previous quarter at annual rate)
[Chart data—TXT]

Output in nonfarm business rose 6.1 percent in the second quarter, after increasing 5.2 percent during the first quarter of 2000. Hours of all persons working in the sector gained 0.4 percent in the second quarter. The increase in hours was the smallest since the first quarter of 1996, when hours decreased by 0.1 percent.

These data are a product of the BLS Quarterly Labor Productivity program. Data are subject to revision. Additional information is available in Productivity and Costs, Second Quarter, 2000 (revised) news release USDL 00-253.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED