February 3, 2012 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Productivity, output, and hours worked, fourth quarter 2011
Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased at a 0.7-percent annual rate during the fourth quarter of 2011. From the fourth quarter of 2010 to the fourth quarter of 2011, productivity grew 0.5 percent, as output rose 2.3 percent and hours rose 1.8 percent. Annual average productivity increased 0.7 percent from 2010 to 2011.
[Chart data]
Over the last four quarters, manufacturing productivity increased 1.7 percent. Output for durable goods manufacturing increased by 7.4 percent compared to the same time last year.
Annual average productivity grew 2.8 percent from 2010 to 2011. Unit labor costs in manufacturing increased 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 but decreased 1.1 percent from the same quarter a year ago.
These data are from the BLS Productivity and Costs program. Data in this report are seasonally adjusted annual rates. These estimates are subject to revision. To learn more, see "Productivity and Costs, Fourth Quarter and Annual Averages 2011, Preliminary" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-12-0162. Labor productivity, or output per hour, is calculated by dividing an index of real output by an index of hours of all persons, including employees, proprietors, and unpaid family workers.
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