2006 Multifactor Productivity Trends — 2008-03-27

Multifactor productivity, defined as output per combined units of labor and capital inputs, grew at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the private business sector and 0.4 percent in the private nonfarm business sector for 2006, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The estimates of multifactor productivity in the private business and in the private nonfarm business sectors for 2006 both show the slowest annual rates of growth since 2001. The 2005-06 annual changes are summarized in table A, and further detail and historical measures are shown in tables 1 through 6. The 0.5 percent change in multifactor productivity growth for the private business sector is less than half of the preliminary 1.1 percent change reported on May 24, 2007 based on preliminary information. This was largely due to a sharp downward revision to output.