Chart: Productivity increases, output and hours decline

In the non-farm business sector, productivity — as measured by output per hour of all persons — increased 2.9 percent in 2009, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. This increase reflected the largest annual declines in output and hours (-3.6 percent and -6.4 percent, respectively) for these measures, which begin in 1948.

[Chart data]

Manufacturing sector productivity grew 1.3 percent in 2009, due to a decline in both output (-11.0 percent) and hours (-12.1 percent) — the largest annual declines recorded in these series, which begin in 1988.

Over the long run, from 2000 to 2009, nonfarm business productivity increased at an average annual rate of 2.6 percent, and manufacturing productivity increased at a rate of 3.1 percent.

These data is from the BLS Productivity and Costs program and is subject to revision. For more information, see "Productivity and Costs: Fourth Quarter and Annual Averages 2009, Preliminary" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-10-0140.