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Productivity
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Manufacturing and Mining Labor Productivity
On April 24, 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) updated measures for detailed industries in Productivity and Costs by Industry: Manufacturing and Mining Industries - 2024. In 2024, the manufacturing sector accounted for 10.0 percent of nonfarm business sector employment (13.1 million jobs) and 10.0 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The mining sector accounted for 0.5 percent of nonfarm business sector employment (597.2 thousand jobs) and 1.3 percent of U.S. GDP. This page presents data highlights from the news release.
Trends in Select Manufacturing and Mining Industries
The charts below feature trends of productivity and related series in selected time periods for three manufacturing industries (petroleum and coal products, motor vehicles, and pharmaceuticals and medicine) and two mining industries (oil and gas extraction and coal mining). Productivity grew at the fastest rate for all three manufacturing industries from 1987 to 2007. Unit labor costs increased at the quickest pace for the manufacturing industries from 2019 to 2024 as hourly compensation grew in all periods. For the mining industries, productivity has increased in oil and gas extraction in all periods, but has fallen in coal mining since 2007. Take a closer look below and explore additional measures and industries with our interactive charts.
- Petroleum and Coal Products
- Motor Vehicles
- Pharmaceuticals and Medicine
- Oil and Gas Extraction
- Coal Mining
BLS creates productivity measures for the nonfarm business sector, U.S. states, and individual industries, such as those in the manufacturing and mining sectors. Labor productivity describes the relationship between output and the hours worked involved in its production. Unit labor costs (ULC) represent the cost of labor required to produce one unit of output. ULC also describes the relationship between compensation per hour worked (hourly compensation) and output per hour (labor productivity).
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Articles:
- Industry contributions to productivity growth in U.S. manufacturing: an application of alternative output concepts
- Multifactor Productivity Slowdown in U.S. Manufacturing
- U.S. manufacturing output, hours worked, and productivity recover from COVID-19
- Dispersion Statistics in Productivity for U.S. manufacturing
Data tools:
- Industry Productivity Viewer
- Interactive Charts
- Labor Productivity by detailed industries (xlsx)
- Industries at a Glance: Manufacturing NAICS 31-33
- Industries at a Glance: Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction NAICS 21
Productivity Education:
Notes
The annual percent change is the change in a series from one year to the next as a percent of the series-value in the previous year. Over a period of more than one year, the annual percent change is the compound annual growth rate in an index series, or an annualized average growth rate. Because the change of an index series varies from year to year, the annual percent change for a long time period reflects the constant rate that can be applied to each year in a period, from the start to the end, that would give the same total result. It is calculated as (Ending Value/Starting Value)^(1/Number of Years)–1.
Last Modified Date: June 10, 2025