Productivity continued to increase in many industries during 1984, (EXCERPT), Monthly Labor Review Online, March 1986

Productivity continued to increase
in many industries during 1984

Arthur S. Herman

Productivity, as measured by output per employee hour, grew in 1984 in about three quarters of the industries for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly publishes data. Productivity increases were large in many industries. In a significant number, these gains followed major productivity growth in 1983. The expansion in industry productivity is consistent with the situation in the nonfarm business sector of the economy in which output per hour increased 1.6 percent between 1983 and 1984, after gaining 3.4 percent in 1982-83. Table 1 shows productivity trends in industries measured by the Bureau and includes new measures introduced for additional industries: barber and beauty shops; metal doors, sash and trim; metal stampings; and oilfield machinery.¹

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Footnotes

1 For a detailed report on these industries, see Brian L. Friedman and Arthur S. Herman, "Productivity growth low in the oilfield machinery industry," Monthly Labor Review, December 1985, pp. 34-38; Horst Brand and Ziaul Z. Ahmed, "Beauty and Barber shops; the trend of labor productivity," pp. 21-26), this issue; and Elmer S. Persigehl and John G. Olsen, "Productivity in the metal doors, sash, and trim industry," pp. 27-31, this issue. An article on the metal stampings industry will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Review.

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