February 06, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Productivity, output, and hours in 2008

In 2008, productivity—as measured by output per hour of all persons—rose 2.8 percent in the nonfarm business sector. This productivity increase, the largest since a similar gain in 2004, was due more to the declines in hours than the small gains in output.

Annual average percent changes in nonfarm business productivity and related measures, 1999-2008
[Chart data—TXT]

Output increased 1.0 percent in 2008 and hours decreased 1.8 percent.

In 2007, the increase in productivity was 1.4 percent, while output increased 2.0 percent and hours rose by 0.5 percent.

These data are from the BLS Productivity and Costs program. Data are subject to revision. For more information, see the "Productivity and Costs: Preliminary Fourth Quarter and Annual Averages for 2008" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 09-0116.

 

 

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