Multifactor productivity in manufacturing industries, 2010

In 2010, manufacturing sector multifactor productivity—defined as output per unit of combined inputs—increased at an annual rate of 7.5 percent. This was the largest increase recorded in the series, which began in 1987.

[Chart data]

Durable manufacturing sector multifactor productivity increased 12.7 percent in 2010, following a decline of 4.7 percent in 2009. This was the largest increase recorded in the series.

Nondurable manufacturing sector multifactor productivity increased 2.7 percent in 2010, following a 0.9-percent decrease in 2009. The gain in 2010 was the largest increase since 2003.

In 2010, 14 out of 18 manufacturing industries exhibited increases in multifactor productivity. Only four manufacturing industries exhibited a decrease in multifactor productivity in 2010: textile mills and textile product mills, paper products, primary metals, and electrical equipment, appliances, and components.

These data are from the Multifactor Productivity program. To learn more, see "Multifactor Productivity Trends in Manufacturing — 2010" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-12-1288. Multifactor productivity is designed to measure the joint influences on economic growth of technological change, efficiency improvements, returns to scale, reallocation of resources, and other factors, allowing for the effects of capital, labor, and intermediate inputs (energy, materials, purchased business services).