Productivity and Costs Data Revised Historically

The Productivity and Costs news release on August 11, 2009, incorporated recently updated information on employment and hours, consumer prices, and manufacturing output as well as historical revisions to other source data.

The measures released August 11, 2009, reflect the revised National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce, on July 31. NIPA output data for the business, nonfarm business and nonfinancial corporate sectors were revised historically. As a result, measures computed by BLS using output, such as productivity, were revised historically for these sectors. NIPA compensation data used for all sectors were revised back to 1978. BLS measures involving compensation, including hourly compensation, real hourly compensation and unit labor costs, were revised historically for all sectors. The compensation data for manufacturing sectors for first quarter 2001 forward are on a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) basis; data prior to this are on a Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) System basis. The measures involving compensation therefore contain a break in series at 2001. NIPA data on employment in government enterprises and the proportion of total compensation paid to employees of corporations and tax-exempt organizations also led to BLS hours revisions back to 1998. Full historical annual and quarterly measures can be found on the productivity and costs home page www.bls.gov/lpc/#data.

Last Modified Date: August 11, 2009