| Productivity in U.S. manufacturing climbed 6.2 percent during 1999, the largest increase in more than 10 years, according to preliminary data released October 17 by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In the United States, output grew 4.3 percent in 1999, while the number of hours worked slipped 1.7 percent, the second consecutive year that U.S. manufacturing hours declined.
Unit labor costs — a key measure of inflation — were down 1.1 percent in the United States from 1998. A decrease in unit labor costs indicates that productivity is increasing faster than labor compensation, BLS said. U.S. manufacturing labor costs have declined at an average annual rate of 0.3 percent since 1990. |
