September 05, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Manufacturing productivity in second quarter of 2008

Productivity decreased 2.2 percent in manufacturing in the second quarter of 2008, as output fell 3.7 percent and hours of all persons fell 1.5 percent (seasonally adjusted annual rates).

[Chart data—TXT]

This was the largest quarterly decline in manufacturing productivity since a 2.5-percent decrease in the second quarter of 1989; it was concentrated in the durable goods sector, where productivity declined 4.5 percent.

In nondurable goods, productivity edged up 0.2 percent as output and hours fell 1.3 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.

These data are from the BLS Productivity and Costs program. Data are subject to revision. For more information, see "Productivity and Costs, Second Quarter 2008, Revised," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-1251.