Material Is Embargoed — 2006-05-04

This release was reissued on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 9, to correct information on first quarter 2006 hourly compensation, real hourly compensation, and unit labor costs in manufacturing, durable goods manufacturing, and nondurable goods manufacturing. The data were based on erroneous, unpublished industry tabulations of employee compensation given to BLS by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Dept. of Commerce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor today reported preliminary productivity data--as measured by output per hour of all persons--for the first quarter of 2006. The seasonally adjusted annual rates of productivity change in the first quarter were: 3.4 percent in the business sector and 3.2 percent in the nonfarm business sector. Productivity in the business sector grew faster in the first quarter of 2006 than in the fourth quarter of 2005, when it increased 0.2 percent (as revised). In the nonfarm business sector, productivity had declined by 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005.