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Productivity
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Articles and Research
Trending Productivity Publications
Monthly Labor Review
The U.S. productivity slowdown: an economy-wide and industry-level analysis
Labor productivity rates have remained below average since 2005. read more »
Monthly Labor Review
Estimating the U.S. labor share
This article reviews the BLS labor share methodology, discusses the uses and limitations of the BLS labor share measure, and suggests ways that BLS might improve the measure. read more »
The Economics Daily
U.S. manufacturing output, hours worked, and productivity recover from COVID-19
Manufacturing output has continued to grow steadily through the second quarter of 2022 and was 3.5 percent above the level in the fourth quarter of 2019, the last quarter not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hours worked in manufacturing have recovered to within 1.2 percent of the level in the fourth quarter of 2019. Labor productivity in manufacturing was 4.7 percent higher in the second quarter of 2022 than in the fourth quarter of 2019. read more »
Beyond the Numbers
What can labor productivity tell us about the U.S. economy?
In 2013 U.S. workers worked the same number of hours as they had in 1998, but U.S. businesses managed to produced 42 percent more output in 2013 than they had in 1998. How did such a large amount of output happen? This issue of Beyond the Numbers provides an introduction to labor productivity and uses labor productivity data from the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 to analyze cyclical changes in the economy. read more »
Beyond the Numbers
Checking out productivity in grocery stores
In this Beyond the Numbers article, we review the timeline for the development and implementation of new retail technologies in grocery stores. Then, check out the shifts in products and services offered by grocery stores over time. Using Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, the article looks at the trends in employment and hours to show how all of these factors influenced labor productivity in grocery stores. read more »
Articles
Labor Productivity
Articles analyzing changes in output per hours worked—a measure of economic performance and efficiency—in broad sectors of the U.S. economy and detailed industries, over business cycles and longer-term periods.
Total Factor Productivity
Articles analyzing changes in output per combined input of labor and capital—a measure of economic performance and efficiency—in broad sectors of the U.S. economy and detailed industries, over business cycles and longer-term periods.
Wage Gap and Labor Share
Articles analyzing the gap between labor compensation growth and labor productivity growth and the related labor share measure.
Concepts and Measurement
Articles detailing the BLS methodology for the estimation of productivity and related measures and the history of the BLS productivity program.
Research
Dispersion Statistics on Productivity
The Dispersion Statistics on Productivity homepage details the BLS research and data on the phenomenon of productivity dispersion, which is pervasive and exhibits substantial variation across countries, industries, and time.
Retail Transformation Through Experimental Measures
The Retail Transformation Through Experimental Measures homepage introduces three experimental measures for retail trade industries in response to the recommendations of the 2021 report on A Satellite Account to Measure the Retail Transformation from the Committee on National Statistics (CNStat). These new measures include gross margin productivity, monthly output, and an expanded retail sector.
Experimental Labor Composition for Detailed Industries
The Experimental Labor Composition for Detailed Industries homepage introduces experimental measures of labor composition at the detailed industry level. By accounting for the varying degrees of skill in the workforce, these experimental measures incorporate the demographic characteristics of workers and their wages into estimates of labor input and total factor productivity.
BEA-BLS Integrated Industry-level Production Accounts (KLEMS)
Two of the most important statistical tools for analysis of macroeconomics and growth are the national accounts (encompassing gross domestic product, or GDP) and the total factor productivity (TFP) statistics, which measure output per unit of combined inputs. Although they share a common accounting framework, in the United States these statistics are compiled by separate agencies—the national accounts by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the productivity statistics by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This project focuses on integrating the national accounts.
BLS Productivity Research Program
The Division of Productivity Research and Program Development (DPRPD) is part of the Productivity Program at BLS and is tasked with strengthening and improving Bureau productivity measures and on understanding the sources and effects of productivity and technical change.
Previous Research
View previous research that is no longer being updated by the Productivity program, including state labor productivity, government labor productivity, and international comparisons.