Questions and Answers

Find answers to commonly asked questions about the Productivity Program. Methods for productivity measures can be found in the Handbook of Methods. The sources for productivity measures are located on the data sources page. Terms and their definitions can be found in the Glossary.

Selecting the arrow next to a topic will reveal more information. You may expand or collapse all categories using the buttons below. To expand categories without moving the cursor, you may press tab until "Expand All" is selected, then press enter.

General Information

1. What is productivity and why is it important? ▸
   • Productivity is a measure of economic performance that compares the amount of goods and services produced (output) with the amount of inputs used to produce those goods and services. With growth in productivity, an economy can produce increasingly more output for the same amount of work. Productivity is important because it affects wages and prices, creates competitiveness among businesses, and serves as an indicator of cyclical changes in the economy. To explore further, please view our educational videos, Productivity Made Easy handout, or our Productivity 101 guide.
2. Which productivity measure is most commonly cited?▸
   • The quarterly labor productivity measure, output per hour worked in the nonfarm business sector  is the most commonly cited productivity measure in the media and is the productivity program’s principal federal economic indicator (PFEI). Visit our latest numbers page to see the most recent data on these and other productivity statistics.
3. What’s the difference between labor productivity and total factor productivity?▸
   • Labor productivity compares the amount of goods and services produced—what we call output—to the number of labor hours used to produce those goods and services. Total factor productivity differs from labor productivity by comparing output not just to hours worked, but to a broader combination of inputs that can include labor, capital, energy, materials and services. Visit the factsheet for more background on the differences and uses of the two measures.
4. Why are your data revised?▸
   • The productivity program revises published estimates to improve its data series by incorporating additional information that was not available at the time of the initial publication. BLS measures of productivity are based on underlying series from a variety of sources. These data sources are frequently revised as additional data become available. When any of these underlying series are updated or revised, the productivity measures are revised to reflect the new information, often with the next release. Visit our Handbook of Methods to find more detail on the revisions for the major sectors productivity data.
5. What is the revision schedule for your data?▸
   • For the quarterly labor productivity and costs (LPC) measure, our revision schedule is typically dependent on when output data is made available by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The preliminary estimate of quarterly LPC is published within 40 days of the close of the reference quarter and, the revised estimate approximately 30 days later. Revisions for annual measures are captured in subsequent releases. Visit our Handbook of Methods to find more detail on the revisions for the major sectors productivity data.

• Back to Top

Productivity Data Overview

Data we have

1. What sectors or industries are covered by your data?▸
   • The productivity program produce data for major sectors of the US economy. Industries are defined using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) to analyze and publish statistics by major sector and industry. Each digit in the code is part of a series of progressively narrower categories, and the more digits in the code signify greater classification detail. Our coverage includes:
     • Quarterly and annual labor productivity measures for the business and nonfarm business sectors, durable and nondurable manufacturing sectors, and total nonfinancial corporations.
     • Annual labor productivity measures for all 2-digit and most 3-digit NAICS industries. We have 4-digit NAICS coverage for industries in manufacturing, mining, wholesale trade, retail trade, and accommodation and food service, as well as select industries in the services sector.
     • Annual total factor productivity measures for the private business and private nonfarm business sectors, durable and nondurable manufacturing sectors, all 2- and most 3-digit NAICS industries, as well as 4-digit NAICS manufacturing industries, line haul railroads, and air transportation. We also have National Income and Product Accounts Industry Coverage within the Private Business Sector and BEA/BLS Integrated Production Accounts for the Total Economy.
     • Additional analyses for select industries are available on the Productivity Highlights page.
2. What are the major sectors and how are they different?▸
   • The major sectors include large portions of the U.S. economy. See the table below for what’s included in the different definitions of our major sectors. We also provide measures for the nonfinancial corporate sector and the manufacturing, durable manufacturing, and nondurable manufacturing sectors.

   • Sectors and composition

     Sector	Private businesses	Farms	Nonprofit organizations	Housing	General government	Government enterprises
     Total U.S. economy	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included
     Business sector	Included	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Included
     Nonfarm business sector	Included	Not included	Not included	Included	Not included	Included
     Private nonfarm business sector	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included	Not included
     Private nonfarm sector	Included	Not included	Included	Not included	Not included	Not included

3. Where can I find quarterly/monthly measures?▸
   • The productivity program produces quarterly labor productivity and costs measures for major sectors (nonfarm business, business, nonfinancial corporate, and manufacturing). We also publish experimental monthly output measures for retail industries.
4. What degree of geographic detail is available in your productivity data?▸
   • Most of our productivity data are at a national level. Labor productivity and costs measures for the private nonfarm sector are available by state and region.  We do not have measures of industry productivity by state. We also do not have measures for cities, zip codes, counties, or metro areas.
5. Where can I find data on a specific company/firm?▸
   • Details on specific companies are confidential. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, in conjunction with the U.S. Census Bureau, produces experimental Dispersion Statistics on Productivity (DiSP) to explore how productivity varies by establishment within an industry.
6. Where are the best places to find your data?▸
   • All of our data, such as labor productivity, total factor productivity, employment, hours worked, unit labor costs, are available for download through our Databases page. Here you will find options for database retrieval and text file download, Excel tables, as well as interactive chart packages for select sectors and industries.
7. Are your data available through an Application Programming Interface (API)?▸
   • Yes, the BLS makes its data available through a Public Data API. It can be queried using the Series ID Format.

• Back to Top

Data we don't have

1. Do you publish productivity levels, in addition to indexes/growth rates?▸
   • We do not. Productivity is measured as change over time. Percent changes and indexes can indicate how much productivity has changed from one period to the next or over several periods.
2. Do you publish total economy productivity data?▸
   • The official productivity measures do not include total economy. The total economy includes several sectors where productivity is difficult to measure: general government, nonprofit institutions, paid employees of private households, and rental of owner-occupied houses. The broadest measure of productivity published by the BLS therefore excludes these sectors and is known as the business sector. Business sector output accounted for about 77 percent of the value of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022. We do publish hours, employment, and capital investment data for the total economy. We also have a supplemental total economy table that should be used with caution. Our BEA-BLS Integrated Industry-level Production Accounts (ILPA) also include total economy data in the contributions to growth tables.
3. Do you publish productivity by occupation?▸
   • We do not. Productivity measures require consistent data on output and the hours worked required to produce that output. Because many occupations are often combined to produce a single output, it is not possible to create reliable estimates of output by occupation. For example, the output of a factory may require multiple occupations such as a machine operator and an engineer as labor inputs, and it is therefore unclear how to allocate the output to the two groups separately.
4. Do you publish data on government productivity?▸
   • This series was discontinued. For more information, visit the “Government Labor Productivity” section on our Previous Research page.
   • While we no longer publish government labor productivity, we still produce some measures of public productivity data. The Industry-Level Production Account data includes federal government and state and local government measures. Additionally, page 5 of the Integrated GDP-Productivity Accounts article details how we handle capital measurement for these sectors.
5. Do you have any data regarding performance and productivity for people teleworking or working remotely?▸
   • While our productivity data does capture the labor composition of the workforce and many inputs affecting productivity, it does not capture where the worker is doing the work. We do have research related to aggregate productivity and working from home. In October 2024, we published "The rise in remote work since the pandemic and its impact on productivity." For more background, data, charts, and research related to remote work see our productivity and remote work page.

• Back to Top

Using Productivity Data

1. How can I compare differences in productivity across industries?▸
   • We do not have levels of productivity data, but we do have industry growth rates for comparison. These data can be found on our tables page. Levels are not comparable across industries due to differences in mix of inputs. Additionally, you can compare industry contributions to productivity growth. For more information, visit our total factor productivity contributions to private business page.
2. How can I compare USA productivity figures to other countries?▸
   • Comparisons of productivity levels between countries depend on comparable measures of output and labor input for each country. Accurate conversion factors are needed for converting each country's output, measured in own-country currency terms, into a common unit of measurement, such as the U.S. dollar. Purchasing power parities (PPPs) are such conversion factors. PPPs are available for total gross domestic product (GDP) from the United Nations' International Comparisons Project (UNICP). They are derived from the expenditure side of the national accounts (consumer, business, and government final expenditures for goods and services) and not for gross product originating by industry, or value-added. Therefore, PPPs by industry are not available from this source. More information can be found at the discontinued BLS International Labor Comparisons program page.
3. How do I read or interpret an index?▸
   • An index series shows the changes, in percentage terms, of a numerical series from a given point in time to another point in time. An index sets the reference period of the series to a base year, or year at which all comparisons can then be made, equal to 100. Additional information is available in our Productivity 101 guide.

• Back to Top

How does productivity relate to other statistics?

1. How is productivity connected to employment?▸
   • When workers are more productive, they can contribute more output in less time, making businesses more efficient. Increased productivity often leads to economic growth, creating new job opportunities. Learn more on this in our "What is Productivity?” video.
   • Growth in compensation for workers is often compared to productivity growth. If productivity is growing faster than worker compensation, this is referred to as the wage gap. You can read more about this in our wage gap and labor share articles.
   • In total factor productivity measures, the labor input accounts for not only hours worked, but also the composition of the labor force, which reflects the experience and skill of the workforce.  You can learn more about labor composition in our experimental labor composition measure for detailed industries.
2. How is productivity connected to inflation and prices?▸
   • Higher productivity can help moderate inflationary pressures. Productivity growth allows businesses to absorb input cost increases without increasing prices for consumers. On the other hand, low productivity growth may contribute to inflation. If production costs rise without a corresponding increase in output, these costs may be shifted to the consumer. To learn more about this relationship, watch our “Understanding Unit Labor Costs” video. Prices are used to deflate/remove inflation from our measures; this is done because we want to isolate productivity. More information can be found in our Handbook of Methods.

• Back to Top

Productivity Methods and Concepts

1. Are your data seasonally adjusted?▸
   • Yes, all data series in the quarterly Productivity and Costs news releases are seasonally adjusted. Because there are seasonal components in the output and hours data series that are used in computing productivity, this seasonality is removed from the series to isolate trends from the normal ups and downs taking place each year. Annual data do not require seasonal adjustment. For more details, see the Handbook of Methods.
2. How do you account for automation/robotics/artificial intelligence(AI)?▸
   • We do not produce a measure specifically for contributions of AI or similar technologies. However, we do produce capital input measures for various asset types such as equipment and intellectual property products (which includes software and R&D) and the efficiencies provided by these would be captured in total factor productivity and in labor productivity as a whole.
3. What inputs are included in your different measures?▸
   • See the table below for what inputs are included in the different measures. For more detail see our Handbook of Methods.

   •  Inputs for productivity measures

     Release	Output	Labor	Capital	Other Inputs
     Labor productivity (quarterly & annual)	Included	Included	Not included	Not included
     Labor productivity –Industries	Included	Included	Not included	Not included
     Labor productivity – State and regional	Included	Included	Not included	Not included
     Total Factor Productivity – Sectors	Included	Included	Included	Not included
     Total Factor Productivity – Industries	Included	Included	Included	Included

4. Why don’t quarterly measures of labor productivity average to the yearly measure?▸
   • Quarterly measures of labor productivity do not average to the yearly measure for two reasons:
     • First, we calculate the quarterly changes as quarter-to-quarter growth at an annual rate. Rather than calculating a traditional percent change between two quarters, we annualize the change by compounding the quarterly change over four quarters. This annualization makes the annual and quarterly measures more comparable but means that the quarterly measures do not average to the annual rate of change.
     • Second, our quarterly measures are created from monthly employee hours data that are seasonally adjusted. However, the annual hours data are not seasonally adjusted and are not averaged over the months— they are derived from a separate annual estimate.
   • For more information, see our Handbook of Methods and our MLR on quarterly labor productivity volatility.