June 07, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Retail trade productivity: 1990-99

Productivity in retail trade, as measured by output per hour, rose 5.2 percent in 1999. Output grew by 7.1 percent while hours increased by 1.8 percent.

[Chart data—TXT]

During the 1990-99 period, productivity in retail trade increased at an annual rate of 2.3 percent. This reflected output growth of 3.7 percent per year and hours growth of 1.4 percent per year.

In each year of the 1990s, productivity in the retail sector either increased or was unchanged. The 1999 increase was the largest of the period.

The measure of retail trade productivity presented here was introduced by BLS this month. In addition, BLS now publishes productivity statistics for all of the industries in retail trade that are at the 2-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) level.

This information is from the Industry Productivity Program. Data are subject to revision. Find out more in "Productivity and Costs: Service-Producing and Mining Industries, 1990-99" news release USDL 01-167. Also, information on manufacturing industries can be found in "Productivity and Costs: Manufacturing Industries, 1990-99" news release USDL 01-141.