Productivity And Costs — 1997-03-11

The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor today reported revised fourth-quarter seasonally-adjusted annual rates of productivity change--as measured by output per hour of all persons--and revised annual changes for the full year 1996. In the fourth quarter, productivity rose in both the business and nonfarm business sectors. Percent changes in business and nonfarm business productivity were: For the year 1996, productivity increases in both sectors were the largest since 1992. Fourth-quarter productivity and related measures are summarized in table A and appear in detail in tables 1 through 5; the preliminary and revised fourth-quarter and annual measures appear in table C. Manufacturing productivity rose at a 4.4 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter as output increased 4.5 percent but hours of all persons grew only 0.1 percent (table A). On an annual basis, manufacturing productivity rose 3.9 percent in 1996, the largest increase in a decade.