Productivity And Costs — 1994-03-08

The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor today reported revised fourth-quarter seasonally-adjusted annual rates of productivity changejas measured by output per hour of all personsjand revised annual changes for the full year 1993. In the fourth quarter, productivity increased briskly in business, nonfarm business, and manufacturing with the strongest gains recorded in durable goods manufacturing (table A). Unit labor costs declined in all sectors except nondurable manufacturing in the fourth quarter, partly reflecting the strong gains in productivity. Fourth-quarter measures are summarized in table A and appear in detail in tables 1 through 5. The changes in business and nonfarm business productivity were: On an annual basis, productivity in business and nonfarm business rose moderately in 1993. The pace of output growth picked up, increasing more rapidly in 1993 than in 1992 in both sectors, and hours of labor input increased for the first time since 1990.