1995 International Comparisons of Manufacturing Productivity and Unit Labor Cost Trends — 1996-07-17

The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor today reported on 1995 developments in manufacturing labor productivity (output per hour) and unit labor costs in the United States and other industrial economies. U.S. manufacturing productivity increased 3.4 percent in 1995. Among the eight foreign economies for which data are available, only Italy and Japan had higher rates of productivity growth than the United States, although several countries matched or nearly matched the U.S. rate. Only one of the economies - the United Kingdom - had no productivity increase in 1995. (See table A and chart 1.) The growth of productivity in the United States was based upon an output increase of 3.5 percent combined with virtually no growth in labor input. Germany (former West Germany) and Japan were the only countries to increase productivity by combining decreases in labor input with increases in output.