Second quarter 2011 productivity growth revised downward

In the second quarter of 2011, nonfarm business productivity decreased 0.7 percent, rather than 0.3 percent, reflecting a downward revision of 0.5 percentage points to output; hours were not revised.

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Unit labor costs—defined as the ratio of hourly compensation to labor productivity—in nonfarm businesses rose 3.3 percent in the second quarter of 2011, because hourly compensation increased 2.7 percent while productivity decreased 0.7 percent. Over the last four quarters, hourly compensation increased more than output per hour, and unit labor costs rose 1.9 percent.

From the second quarter of 2010 to the second quarter of 2011, output increased 2.4 percent while hours rose 1.6 percent, yielding an increase in productivity of 0.7 percent.

These data are from the BLS Productivity and Costs program. Data in this report are seasonally adjusted annual rates. These estimates are subject to revision. Additional information is available in "Productivity and Costs, Second Quarter 2011, Revised" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-11-1276. Labor productivity, or output per hour, is calculated by dividing an index of real output by an index of hours of all persons, including employees, proprietors, and unpaid family workers. The revised measures were based on more recent source data than were available for the preliminary report.