SOURCES:  Output data are from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census 
Bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce; the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
U.S. Department of Labor; and the Federal Reserve Board.  Compensation and 
hours data are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of Economic 
Analysis.

RELIABILITY:  Productivity and cost measures are regularly revised as more 
complete information becomes available.  The measures are first published 
within 40 days of the close of the reference period; revisions appear 30 days 
later, and second revisions after an additional 60 days.  In the business 
sector, the third publication (second revision) of a quarterly index of 
output per hour of all persons has differed from the initial value by between 
-1.5 and +1.3 index points approximately 95 percent of the time.  This 
interval is based on the performance of this measure between the fourth 
quarter of 1995 and the third quarter of 2008.



				Footnotes, Tables 1-6

(1)  Wages and salaries of employees plus employers' contributions for social 
insurance and private benefit plans.  Except for nonfinancial 
corporations, where there are no self-employed, data also include an 
estimate of wages, salaries, and supplemental payments for the self-
employed.

(2)  The change for recent quarters is based on the Consumer Price Index for 
all urban consumers (CPI-U).  The trend from 1978-2007 is based on the 
Consumer Price Index research series (CPI-U-RS).

(3)  Unit nonlabor payments include profits, consumption of fixed capital, 
taxes on production and imports less subsidies, net interest and 
miscellaneous payments, business current transfer payments, rental 
income of persons, and the current surplus of government enterprises.

(4)  Current dollar output divided by the output index.

(5)  Quarterly changes:  Percent change compounded at annual rate is 
calculated using index numbers to three decimal places.  Indexes 
published in the news release are rounded to one decimal place for 
convenience.  Annual changes:  Percent change is calculated using annual 
average indexes to three decimal places.

(6)  Unit nonlabor costs include consumption of fixed capital, taxes on 
production and imports less subsidies, net interest and miscellaneous 
payments, and business current transfer payments.

(7)  Total unit costs are the sum of unit labor and nonlabor costs.

(8)  Unit profits include corporate profits before tax with inventory 
valuation and capital consumption adjustments.