Sources and footnotes for tables
SOURCES: Output data are from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the
Census Bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce; the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor; and the Federal Reserve Board.
Compensation and hours data are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and
the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
RELIABILITY: Productivity and cost measures are regularly revised as
more complete information becomes available. The measures are first
published within 40 days of the close of the reference period; revisions
appear 30 days later, and second revisions after an additional 60 days.
In the business sector, the third publication (second revision) of a
quarterly index of output per hour of all persons has differed from the
initial value by between -1.7 and 1.5 index points approximately 95
percent of the time. This interval is based on the performance of this
measure between the fourth quarter of 1995 and the third quarter of
2011.
Table Footnotes
(1) Wages and salaries of employees plus employers' contributions for
social insurance and private benefit plans. Except for nonfinancial
corporations, where there are no self-employed, data also include an
estimate of wages, salaries, and supplemental payments for the self-
employed.
(2) The change for recent quarters is based on the Consumer Price Index
for all urban consumers (CPI-U). The trend from 1978-2010 is based on the
Consumer Price Index research series (CPI-U-RS).
(3) Unit nonlabor payments include profits, consumption of fixed
capital, taxes on production and imports less subsidies, net interest
and miscellaneous payments, business current transfer payments, rental
income of persons, and the current surplus of government enterprises.
(4) Current dollar output divided by the output index.
(5) Quarterly changes: Percent change compounded at annual rate is
calculated using index numbers to three decimal places. Indexes
published in the news release are rounded to one decimal place for
convenience. Annual changes: Percent change is calculated using annual
average indexes to three decimal places.
(6) Unit nonlabor costs include consumption of fixed capital, taxes on
production and imports less subsidies, net interest and miscellaneous
payments, and business current transfer payments.
(7) Total unit costs are the sum of unit labor and nonlabor costs.
(8) Unit profits include corporate profits before tax with
inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments.
Last Modified Date: February 02, 2012
