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November, 1988, Vol. 111, No. 11

Patterns of productivity change
in men's and boys' suits and coats

Mark Scott Sieling and Daniel Curtin

As measured by output per employee hour, productivity in the men's and boys' suits and coats industry increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent between 1967 and 1987, compared with 2.5 percent for all manufacturing combined.¹ Employee hours declined almost twice as fast as output, dropping an average of 4.2 percent a year, against a 2.4-percent annual drop for output. The long-term trend in productivity falls into three distinct periods during which annual rates changed markedly. As the following tabulation shows, average productivity gains were high during the 1967-72 and 1983-87 periods, but were very small during the interim years:²

	Output per     employee       hour	Output	Employee       hours
1967-87 .............................	1.9	-2.4	-4.2
1967-72 .........................	3.1	-1.7	-4.7
1972-83 ..........................	.7	-3.4	-4.1
1983-87 ..........................	6.0	- .1	-5.8

During the 1967-72 period, employee hours declined about three times faster than output, resulting in an average gain in output per employee hour of 3.1 percent. These productivity increases partially reflected the consolidation of the industry into larger sized establishments, the replacement of hand assembly operations with fusing technologies (bonding two pieces of material together with adhesives) and sewing machine operations, and the introduction of semiautomated fabric cutting machinery.

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Footnote

1  The men's and boys' suits and coats industry is designated as SIC 2311 by the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification Manual of the Office of Management and Budget. This industry consists of establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing men's and boys' tailored suits, coats, and overcoats from purchased woven or knit fabrics. Establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing uniforms (except athletic and work uniforms) are also included in this industry.
    Average annual rates of change are based on the linear least squares of the logarithms of the index numbers. Extensions of the indexes will appear in the annual Bureau of Labor Statistics bulletin, Productivity Measures for Selected Industries.

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