September 29, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Productivity in the video tape and disc rental industry

The video tape and disc rental industry recorded an average gain of 4.0 percent per year in labor productivity (output per hour) over the 1987-2002 period. This increase reflected a rapid growth in output of 7.2 percent per year on average, and a more moderate increase of 3.1 percent per year in hours.

[Chart data—TXT]

After posting productivity increases averaging 4.4 percent per year from 1990 to 1995, output per hour in the video tape and disc rental industry grew at a slightly lower rate of 4.1 percent per year during the 1995-2000 period. 

Growth in video tape and disc rental output per hour continued to slow after 2000, and declined in 2002.

These data are from the BLS Productivity and Costs program. Data are subject to revision. Find out more information in "New Service Industry Productivity Measures," (PDF 30K), BLS Report 979.