March 13, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

2000 saw largest increase in multifactor productivity since 1992

Multifactor productivity—measured as output per unit of combined labor and capital inputs—rose by 1.8 percent in the private nonfarm business sector in 2000. This was the ninth consecutive year of growth, and the highest increase since 1992.

[Chart data—TXT]

The multifactor productivity gain in 2000 reflected a 4.5-percent increase in output and a 2.7-percent increase in the combined inputs of capital and labor. Capital services grew by 6.1 percent, while labor input grew by 1.1 percent. 

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, 2000" news release USDL 02-128.