Chapter 10.
Productivity Measures: Business Sector and Major
Subsectors
Background
Indexes of labor productivity, multifactor
productivity, and related measures for broad economic
sectors and manufacturing industries are published by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Quarterly and annual measures
of output per hour, together with comparable measures of
compensation per hour and unit labor costs, are
maintained for business and nonfarm business from 1947 to
the present. Similar measures are also available for
manufacturing (total, durable, and nondurable sectors)
and for nonfinancial corporations.
The multifactor productivity indexes for major sectors
measure the value-added output per combined unit of labor
and capital input in private business and private nonfarm
business. Multifactor productivity indexes for aggregate
manufacturing and for 20 manufacturing industries provide
measures of sector output per combined unit of capital
(K), labor (L), energy (E), materials (M), and purchased
business services (S) inputs — KLEMS inputs.
Table 1 summarizes the availability of productivity
measures for major sectors of the U.S. economy.
Table 1 .
Availability of productivity measures for major sectors
and subsectors of the economy
Productivity measure |
Input(s) |
Index available |
Labor productivity:1
|
Business1
|
Labor |
Quarterly |
Nonfarm business |
Labor |
Quarterly |
Nonfinancial
corporations |
Labor |
Quarterly |
Manufacturing,
total |
Labor |
Quarterly |
Durable |
Labor |
Quarterly |
Nondurable |
Labor |
Quarterly |
Multifactor productivity |
Private business |
Labor, capital |
Annually |
Private
nonfarm business |
Labor, capital |
Annually |
KLEMS2 multifactor productivity:
|
Manufacturing and
20 2-digit SIC manufacturing industries services |
Labor, capital, energy,
materials, services |
Annually |
1 Includes government enterprises; multifactor
productivity measures exclude such enterprises.
2 Capital (K), labor (L), energy (E), materials
(M), and purchased business services (S) inputs.
Next: Description
of Measures
|