2010 Multifactor Productivity Trends for Detailed Industries — 2012-09-26

Multifactor productivity - defined as output per unit of combined inputs - increased in 73 of the 86 four-digit NAICS manufacturing industries in 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table 1.) This was up from 2009, when multifactor productivity increased in only 17 of those industries. More industries recorded multifactor productivity gains in 2010 than in any year since 2004. Seventeen manufacturing industries recorded double-digit percent increases in multifactor productivity. Industries where multifactor productivity rose the most in 2010 were semiconductors and electronic components; motor vehicles; leather and hide tanning and finishing; forging and stamping; and cutlery and hand tools. Multifactor productivity rose in both of the transportation industries studied in 2010. Multifactor productivity increased 3.8 percent in air transportation and 7.3 percent in line-haul railroads. Multifactor productivity indexes relate the change in real output to the change in the combined inputs of labor, capital, and intermediate purchases consumed in producing that output.