Summary

Productivity improvement is a critical factor underlying economic growth and prosperity. The National Productivity Council is directed to act as a focal point in the executive branch for efforts to improve productivity in the private and public sectors of the economy. The Department of Labor has been directed to provide federal leadership in productivity growth through improvement and innovative utilization of employee skills and capabilities, protection and improvement of the quality of working life in conjunction with productivity improvement, and labor-management cooperation in productivity growth.

GAO found that the Department of Labor has done very little to fulfill this leadership mandate, because of the low priority which it assigned to this responsibility. Its existing, legislatively mandated programs do not have a direct focus on productivity and it has developed no new programs in response to the President's directive. Labor's failure to respond to the President's directive and provide leadership has hampered federal efforts to improve private sector productivity. Because there are no funds in Labor's annual appropriation specifically earmarked for implementation of improvement of productivity, Labor must use general funds from other programs for this program.