October 01, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Korea had largest factory productivity gain in 2003

Among the 14 economies compared, Korea registered the largest gain in manufacturing productivity in 2003: 9.0 percent.

[Chart data—TXT]

The increase in U.S. manufacturing output per hour in 2003 was the second highest (6.8 percent). Manufacturing productivity also increased in all the compared economies, except for Italy.

As in 2002, U.S. productivity growth in manufacturing in 2003 was substantially above its average annual growth rate since 1979. Seven of the other 12 economies for which comparisons are available also had productivity growth in 2003 that exceeded their annual average over the 1979-2003 period.

These data are from the Foreign Labor Statistics program. Data are subject to revision. For more information, see news release, "International Comparisons of Manufacturing Productivity and Unit Labor Cost Trends, 2003" (PDF) (TXT), USDL 04-1945.