May 13, 2003 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Productivity jump for nonfinancial corporations in 2002

Productivity in nonfinancial corporations, as measured by output per hour, grew 5.5 percent in year 2002, the largest increase in recent history. This followed an increase of 1.4 percent in the previous year.

[Chart data—TXT]

The rise in nonfinancial corporate productivity in 2002 was attributable to output growth of 3.2 percent growth and to a fall in hours of 2.2 percent. This was the second consecutive decrease in employee hours.

These data are from the BLS Productivity and Costs program. Data are subject to revision. The nonfinancial corporate output measure is calculated using data on gross domestic product, excluding the following outputs: general government; nonprofit institutions; employees of private households; the rental value of owner-occupied dwellings; unincorporated business; and financial corporations such as depository institutions. Additional information is available in "Productivity and Costs, First Quarter 2003" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 03-202.