2002 - 2004 Multifactor Productivity Trends in Manufacturing — 2006-12-06

The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor today reported multifactor productivity data�output per unit of combined inputs�for the manufacturing sector and for durable goods, nondurable goods, and three-digit (NAICS) manufacturing industries through the year 2004. In all three sectors, manufacturing, durable manufacturing, and nondurable manufacturing, multifactor productivity growth was just slightly faster in 2003 than in 2002. Multifactor productivity fell in all three sectors in 2004. The 2001-02, 2002-3 and 2003-4 annual changes are summarized in table A, and further detail and historical measures are shown in tables 1 through 3. Multifactor productivity is designed to measure the joint influences of economic growth on technological change, efficiency improvements, returns to scale, reallocation of resources, and other factors, allowing for the effects of capital and labor.