Productivity and Costs - 8:30AM

Full report here Transmission of this material is embargoed until USDL-09-0933 8:30 a.m. (EDT) Tuesday, August 11, 2009 Technical information: (202) 691-5606 dprweb@bls.gov www.bls.gov/lpc Media contact: (202) 691-5902 PressOffice@bls.gov PRODUCTIVITY AND COSTS Second Quarter 2009, Preliminary The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor today reported preliminary productivity data--as measured by output per hour of all persons--for the second quarter of 2009. The seasonally adjusted annual rates of productivity change in the second quarter were: 6.3 percent in the business sector and 6.4 percent in the nonfarm business sector. Productivity gains in both sectors were the largest since the third quarter of 2003, and were due to hours worked declining faster than output. In manufacturing, the preliminary productivity changes in the second quarter were: 5.3 percent in manufacturing, 3.9 percent in durable goods manufacturing, and 2.0 percent in nondurable goods manufacturing. The increases in productivity in all manufacturing sectors were the result of hours falling faster than output. Output and hours in manufacturing, which includes about 11 percent of U.S. business-sector employment, tend to vary more from quarter to quarter than data for the aggregate business and nonfarm business sectors. Second-quarter measures are summarized in table A and appear in detail in tables 1 through 5. The data sources and methods used in the preparation of the manufacturing series differ from those used in preparing the business and nonfarm business series, and these measures are not directly comparable. Output measures for business and nonfarm business are based on measures of gross domestic product prepared by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Quarterly output measures for manufacturing reflect indexes of industrial production independently prepared by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. See Technical Notes for further information on data sources. More at link