February 20, 2003 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Productivity growth slower in two-thirds of newly measured service industries

In 4 of the 6 service-sector industries for which BLS has developed new labor productivity measures, output per hour grew more slowly in 1995-2000 than in 1990-1995.

[Chart data—TXT]

The largest slowdown occurred in the prepackaged software industry, where the rate of growth in productivity declined from 20.1 percent per year in 1990-1995 to 8.6 percent per year in 1995-2000.

Productivity growth also slowed in local trucking and in truck rentals and leasing. There was a decline in output per hour in public warehousing and storage in 1995-2000, following an increase in 1990-1995.

Productivity accelerated in the last half of the 1990s in advertising agencies and in the passenger car rental industry. 

These data are a product of the BLS Productivity and Costs program. Find out more information in "New Transportation and Service Productivity Measures," (PDF 86K) Report 964.  

Related TED article:

• Rapid productivity growth in prepackaged software industry 

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