Unit labor costs in the third quarter of 2010

From the previous quarter, at an annual rate, unit labor costs in nonfarm businesses decreased 0.1 percent in the third quarter of 2010, because productivity grew 2.3 percent while hourly compensation increased 2.2 percent.

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From the previous quarter, at an annual rate, manufacturing unit labor costs increased 1.0 percent in the third quarter of 2010.

Over the last four quarters, unit labor costs in nonfarm business declined 1.1 percent, while unit labor costs in manufacturing fell 2.9 percent over that same period.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics defines unit labor costs as the ratio of hourly compensation to labor productivity; increases in hourly compensation tend to increase unit labor costs and increases in output per hour tend to reduce them.

These data, from the Productivity and Costs program, are seasonally adjusted and are subject to revision. To learn more about productivity, output, hours and related measures, see "Productivity and Costs: Third Quarter 2010, Revised" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-10-1661.