September 03, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Second quarter 2009 productivity growth revised

During the second quarter of 2009, nonfarm business sector productivity—as measured by output per hour—increased at an annual rate of 6.6 percent; revised from the initial estimate of 6.4 percent.

Previous and revised productivity and related measures, nonfarm business, second quarter 2009 (quarterly percent change at seasonally adjusted rates)
[Chart data]

The 6.6 percent increase was the largest productivity increase since the third quarter of 2003, and reflects declines of 1.5 percent in output and 7.6 percent in hours worked.

From the second quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2009, output fell 5.5 percent while hours fell 7.2 percent, yielding an increase in productivity of 1.9 percent.

Nonfarm business activity increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent from 2000 through 2008.

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 2009, Revised" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL 09-1066.

 

 

Of interest

Spotlight on Statistics: The Recession of 2007–2009

The most recent recession in the United States began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, though many of the statistics that describe the U.S. economy have yet to return to their pre-recession values. In this Spotlight, we present BLS data that compare the recent recession to previous recessions. Read more »