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From 2006 to 2007, labor productivity—defined as output per hour—increased in 13 of the 21 3-digit NAICS manufacturing industries.
Productivity rose the fastest in primary metals manufacturing and in computer and electronic products manufacturing, two industries where output increased rapidly but hours fell.
In contrast, a very large drop in output combined with a much smaller drop in labor hours resulted in a large productivity decline in apparel manufacturing.
Between 1987 and 2007, productivity rose in all but one of the 21 aggregate industries. The only industry to decline was apparel manufacturing, as output fell more rapidly than hours.
The manufacturing industry measures have been revised to include, for the first time, the output of nonemployer firms and the employment, hours, and labor compensation of self-employed and unpaid family workers. Although small, the revision reflects a more complete accounting of the economic activity in each industry, and improves consistency with the measures for other sectors that account for the activity of these firms and workers.
These data are from the Productivity and Costs program. Additional information can be found in “Productivity and Costs by Industry: Manufacturing Industries, 2007” (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-09-1502. The productivity measures reflect data classified according to the 2007 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS); series for some industries may have changed as a result. The base year has been changed from 1997 to 2002 for all indexes. All of the measures for 2007 are preliminary and subject to revision.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Manufacturing industries and productivity, 2007 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2010/ted_20100107.htm (visited October 10, 2024).