March 06, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.) Productivity growth in fourth quarter 2007Productivity in the nonfarm business sector—as measured by output per hour—grew at a revised seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.9 percent during the fourth quarter of 2007. Productivity growth for the fourth quarter was originally estimated at 1.8 percent. Output in the nonfarm business sector increased at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter; the original estimate was 0.4 percent. Hours of all persons engaged in the sector declined 1.6 percent; the original estimate was a 1.5-percent decline. In the third quarter of 2007, productivity increased 6.3 percent, reflecting a gain of 5.6 percent in output and a decrease of 0.6 percent in hours. These data are from the BLS Productivity and Costs program. Data in this report are seasonally adjusted annual rates. These estimates are subject to revision. Additional information is available in "Productivity and Costs, Fourth Quarter and Annual Averages, 2007 Revised" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 08-0293. Happy 10th Birthday, TED!The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far. |
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