September 14, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Unit labor costs fall in 1990s in
U.S. auto industry
The motor vehicles and equipment
industry throttled down labor costs during the current economic expansion. In three major
segments of the industry—motor vehicle assembly, parts manufacturing, and automotive
stampings—unit labor costs were lower in 1998 than they were in 1991.
![Unit labor costs, selected industries, 1987-98](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120925020834im_/http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/1999/Sept/wk3/art02.gif)
[Chart data—TXT]
From 1991 to 1998, unit labor costs of motor vehicle
assemblers declined 0.9 percent per year. During the same period, parts manufacturers cut
unit labor costs by 2.0 percent annually, on average. The automotive stampings industry
had even greater success in cost-cutting, reducing unit labor costs by 4.4 percent per
year.
Unit labor costs—the cost of the labor input required to produce one unit of
output—are computed by dividing labor costs in nominal terms by real output. Unit
labor costs also can be expressed as the ratio of hourly compensation to labor
productivity.
These data are a product of the BLS Industry
Productivityprogram. Find out more in Report
on the American Workforce 1999
(PDF 1,037K).
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »
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