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Labor productivity—defined as output per hour—rose in about three-quarters of detailed manufacturing and mining industries covered in 2014. This was higher than 2013, when labor productivity rose in about 60 percent of the covered industries. Output and hours also increased in more industries in 2014 than in the previous year.
Industry | Change in output | Change in hours | Change in output per hour |
---|---|---|---|
Aerospace products and parts |
2.1 | -1.2 | 3.3 |
Agricultural chemicals |
0.7 | 5.5 | -4.6 |
Agriculture, construction, and mining machinery |
9.2 | 1.3 | 7.7 |
Alumina and aluminum production |
2.0 | 2.9 | -0.8 |
Animal slaughtering and processing |
-1.4 | -0.6 | -0.8 |
Architectural and structural metals |
3.9 | 3.0 | 0.9 |
Bakeries and tortilla manufacturing |
3.3 | -1.4 | 4.7 |
Basic chemicals |
0.3 | 4.5 | -4.1 |
Beverages |
4.8 | 1.6 | 3.2 |
Cement and concrete products |
4.4 | 0.1 | 4.3 |
Clay products and refractories |
1.6 | -2.9 | 4.7 |
Coal mining |
6.7 | 1.2 | 5.4 |
Coating, engraving, and heat treating metals |
0.7 | -0.8 | 1.6 |
Converted paper products |
-1.6 | -0.2 | -1.4 |
Cutlery and hand tools |
-4.4 | -9.0 | 5.0 |
Dairy products |
3.0 | -2.4 | 5.5 |
Electric lighting equipment |
1.0 | -3.2 | 4.4 |
Electrical equipment |
0.3 | -0.9 | 1.1 |
Electronic instruments |
5.9 | -2.1 | 8.2 |
Fabric mills |
2.3 | 4.3 | -1.9 |
Fiber, yarn, and thread mills |
0.9 | 3.0 | -2.1 |
Forging and stamping |
9.1 | 2.1 | 6.8 |
Foundries |
9.9 | 6.7 | 3.0 |
Fruit and vegetable preserving and specialty |
3.0 | 0.5 | 2.4 |
Glass and glass products |
8.7 | 16.8 | -7.0 |
Grain and oilseed milling |
0.3 | -6.1 | 6.9 |
Household and institutional furniture |
11.4 | 8.4 | 2.8 |
Household appliances |
7.1 | -2.0 | 9.4 |
HVAC and commercial refrigeration equipment |
5.2 | 4.4 | 0.8 |
Industrial machinery |
8.5 | 2.7 | 5.6 |
Lime and gypsum products |
9.5 | 5.7 | 3.6 |
Machine shops and threaded products |
4.8 | 3.1 | 1.6 |
Medical equipment and supplies |
6.2 | 1.9 | 4.2 |
Metal ore mining |
1.5 | 1.0 | 0.5 |
Metalworking machinery |
7.3 | 2.7 | 4.5 |
Motor vehicle parts |
6.1 | 4.0 | 1.9 |
Motor vehicles |
8.5 | 12.3 | -3.3 |
Nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying |
5.5 | 6.9 | -1.3 |
Oil and gas extraction |
13.4 | 1.7 | 11.5 |
Other electrical equipment and components |
1.2 | -1.7 | 2.9 |
Other fabricated metal products |
4.9 | 3.0 | 1.9 |
Other food products |
-0.5 | -1.9 | 1.5 |
Other nonmetallic mineral products |
5.9 | 3.7 | 2.1 |
Other textile product mills |
3.2 | -4.1 | 7.6 |
Other transportation equipment |
8.8 | 3.2 | 5.4 |
Other wood products |
5.1 | 2.2 | 2.9 |
Paints, coatings, and adhesives |
-0.2 | 4.9 | -4.8 |
Petroleum and coal products |
2.3 | -0.4 | 2.7 |
Pharmaceuticals and medicines |
1.0 | -3.4 | 4.5 |
Plastics products |
6.9 | 4.0 | 2.7 |
Plywood and engineered wood products |
1.9 | 8.0 | -5.7 |
Printing and related support activities |
-0.3 | 0.9 | -1.2 |
Pulp, paper, and paperboard mills |
-3.4 | -1.7 | -1.7 |
Rubber products |
7.2 | 5.5 | 1.6 |
Sawmills and wood preservation |
3.8 | 1.7 | 2.0 |
Semiconductors and electronic components |
8.0 | -1.6 | 9.8 |
Ship and boat building |
11.4 | 4.4 | 6.7 |
Spring and wire products |
9.5 | 7.8 | 1.6 |
Textile and fabric finishing and coating mills |
0.4 | -9.4 | 10.8 |
Textile furnishings mills |
0.1 | -0.4 | 0.5 |
Tobacco and tobacco products |
-4.8 | -5.7 | 0.9 |
Oil and gas extraction recorded the largest increase in labor productivity in 2014. Output from the industry increased 13.4 percent, while hours increased 1.7 percent; as a result, output per hour rose 11.5 percent.
Productivity rose 10.8 percent in textile and fabric finishing and coating mills, as output increased little (0.4 percent) and hours declined (−9.4 percent). Productivity in semiconductors and electronic components increased 9.8 percent, as output rose 8.0 percent and hours fell 1.6 percent.
Glass and glass products had the largest decline in productivity (−7.0 percent); in this industry, the change in output (8.7 percent) was about half as large as the change in hours (16.8 percent).
The chart shows the industries with the largest changes in productivity in 2014. Industries in which the percentage change in output was greater than the change in hours appear above the diagonal line; productivity grew in those industries. In contrast, productivity declined in the industries below the diagonal line. The farther an industry’s marker is from the diagonal line, the larger the change in productivity.
These data are from the Labor Productivity and Costs program. They are preliminary and may be revised. To learn more, see "Productivity and Costs by Industry: Manufacturing and Mining Industries, 2014" (HTML) (PDF). The industry data shown here are at the 3-digit level of the North American Industry Classification System.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Oil and gas extraction labor productivity increases 11.5 percent in 2014 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/oil-and-gas-extraction-labor-productivity-increases-in-2014.htm (visited December 05, 2024).