2012 Multifactor Productivity Trends — 2014-04-03

Private nonfarm business sector multifactor productivity increased at a 1.5 percent annual rate in 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This gain in 2012 reflected a 3.8-percent increase in output and 2.2-percent increase in the combined inputs of capital and labor. Capital services grew by 1.4 percent, and labor input � which is the combined effect of hours worked and labor composition � grew 2.7 percent, the largest gain since 1997. Capital services per hour of all persons decreased at a rate of 0.8 percent in 2012 after falling 1.1 percent in 2011. The decreases in 2011 and 2012 are the only two years of decline in the measure which began in 1987. (See chart 1, table A, table 1.) Multifactor productivity measures the change in output per unit of combined capital and labor input.