February 22, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Korea and Sweden record largest manufacturing productivity increases in 2004

Manufacturing labor productivity increased in 13 of 15 economies in 2004. Korea and Sweden had the largest productivity increases (12.1 and 9.8 percent respectively).

Percent change in manufacturing output per hour, by country, revised, 2004
[Chart data—TXT]

Japan, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and the U.S. also showed productivity gains of over 5 percent. The U.S. increase of 5.2 percent was the sixth highest. The U.S. productivity increase is a revision from the preliminary estimate of 4.7 percent released in October 2005. 

Australia and Italy were the only two economies showing declines in manufacturing productivity in 2004.

These data are from the BLS Foreign Labor Statistics program. Data are subject to further revision. Additional information is available in "International Comparisons of Manufacturing Productivity and Unit Labor Cost Trends, Revised Data for 2004" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-268.

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