Service-Producing and Mining Industries, 1987-98 — 2000-05-26

The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today on labor productivity and unit labor cost changes for selected industries in the service-producing and mining sectors of the U.S. economy. This is the first industry productivity news release to include unit labor costs, introduced by BLS in 1999 for these industries. Labor productivity--defined as output per hour--rose for most of these industries in 1998. Nearly half of the industries registering productivity growth also posted declines in unit labor costs. In 1998, labor productivity increased in 80 percent of the service-producing and mining industries reported here. Output growth was recorded by 82 percent of the industries, while hours of labor grew in 54 percent of the industries. The proportion of service-producing and mining industries experiencing long-term productivity growth was larger than the proportion with short- term productivity growth. Over the 1987-98 period, output per hour advanced in 92 percent of the service-producing and mining industries.