February 12, 2010 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Productivity increases, output and hours decline in 2009
In the nonfarm business sector, productivity—as measured by output per hour of all persons—increased 2.9 percent in 2009. This increase reflected the largest annual declines in output and hours (‑3.6 percent and ‑6.4 percent, respectively) for these measures, which begin in 1948.
[Chart data]
Manufacturing sector productivity grew 1.3 percent in 2009, due to a decline in both output (‑11.0 percent) and hours (‑12.1 percent)—the largest annual declines recorded in these series, which begin in 1988.
Over the long run, from 2000 to 2009, nonfarm business productivity increased at an average annual rate of 2.6 percent, and manufacturing productivity increased at a rate of 3.1 percent.
These data are from the BLS Productivity and Costs program. These data are subject to revision. For more information, see "Productivity and Costs: Fourth Quarter and Annual Averages 2009, Preliminary" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-10-0140.
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