Unit labor costs in manufacturing, second quarter 2008
August 12, 2008
Unit labor costs in manufacturing jumped 6.1 percent (seasonally adjusted) in the second quarter of 2008, after increasing 2.8 percent in the previous quarter.
[Chart data—TXT]
The growth in unit labor costs from the second quarter of 2007 was 1.9 percent, reversing the 0.8-percent decline from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008. The 2000-2007 long-term average annual rate of growth for unit labor costs is 0.3 percent.
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.
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. Additional information is available in "Productivity and Costs, Second Quarter 2008 Preliminary" (HTML) (PDF) news release USDL 08-1123.
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