International factory productivity gains, and losses, in 2007

Manufacturing labor productivity increased in 2007 in 14 of the 16 economies compared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

[Chart data—TXT]

The Republic of Korea and Taiwan had the largest productivity increases of 8.7 percent each, while Germany followed with an increase of 5.0 percent.

The United States productivity increase of 4.1 percent was the fourth largest among the 16 economies compared. This was slightly above the 3.9-percent U.S. average annual increase since 1979.

Italy and Norway both had declines in productivity.

Manufacturing output increased in 15 of the 16 economies in 2007; Taiwan and Korea were the leaders in the growth of output. While 15 of the manufacturing sectors had increases in 2007 in output, 9 had increases in total hours worked; Norway and Denmark had the largest increases in total hours worked.

These data are from the Foreign Labor Statistics program. Data are subject to revision. Additional information is available in "International Comparisons of Manufacturing Productivity and Unit Labor Cost Trends, 2007" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 08-1343.