August 30, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Another increase in manufacturing multifactor productivity

Multifactor productivity—measured as output per unit of combined inputs—rose by 1.9 percent in manufacturing in 2000. This was down somewhat from the 2.6-percent increase in 1999.

[Chart data—TXT]

The multifactor productivity gain in 2000 was the result of a 2.5-percent advance in manufacturing output less a 0.7-percent increase in combined inputs. Growth in both output and combined inputs was the slowest since declines in 1991. 

Inputs of materials rose 0.9 percent in 2000, the slowest growth since 1987. Capital services continued to grow rapidly, posting a 3.8-percent advance. Hours at work declined for the third year in a row, falling 1.4 percent, the largest decline in factory hours since 1991.

Multifactor productivity is designed to measure the joint influences on economic growth of technological change, efficiency improvements, returns to scale, reallocation of resources, and other factors. Multifactor productivity, therefore, differs from the labor productivity (output per hour) measures that are published quarterly by BLS since it requires information on capital services and other data that are not available on a quarterly basis.

These data are a product of the BLS Multifactor Productivity program. Data are subject to revision. Additional information is available in "Multifactor Productivity Trends in Manufacturing, 2000," news release USDL 02-499.