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Productivity up in wholesale trade, retail trade, and food services and drinking places in 2016

August 14, 2017

Labor productivity rose 1.2 percent in wholesale trade, 4.6 percent in retail trade, and 1.3 percent in food services and drinking places in 2016.

Productivity increased in all of the 16 3-digit NAICS industries studied in 2016 except for health and personal care stores. Seven industries had productivity gains of at least 4.0 percent. Nonstore retailers, which includes electronic shopping and mail-order houses, had the largest increase in output (12.6 percent).
One year percent change in productivity, 2016
Industry Percent change, 2016

Wholesale trade

 1.2%

Durable goods

 0.5

Motor vehicles and parts

 -2.1

Furniture and furnishings

 3.4

Lumber and construction supplies

 0.1

Commercial equipment

 3.1

Metals and minerals

 -1.6

Appliances and electric goods

 0.9

Hardware and plumbing

 -1.2

Machinery and supplies

 1.3

Miscellaneous durable goods

 0.8

Nondurable goods

 1.0

Paper and paper products

 1.7

Druggists' goods

 1.5

Apparel and piece goods

 -2.2

Grocery and related products

 -2.0

Farm product raw materials

 11.7

Chemicals

 2.6

Petroleum

 18.6

Alcoholic beverages

 -2.1

Miscellaneous nondurable goods

 -4.4

Electronic markets and agents and brokers

 3.9

Electronic markets and agents and brokers

 3.9

Retail trade

 4.6

Motor vehicle and parts dealers

 3.2

Automobile dealers

 3.0

Other motor vehicle dealers

 7.1

Auto parts, accessories, and tire stores

 -0.1

Furniture and home furnishings stores

 5.5

Furniture stores

 3.6

Home furnishings stores

 7.6

Electronics and appliance stores

 8.0

Electronics and appliance stores

 8.0

Building material and garden supply stores

 5.3

Building material and supplies dealers

 5.9

Lawn and garden equipment and supplies stores

 1.4

Food and beverage stores

 4.7

Grocery stores

 5.5

Specialty food stores

 3.4

Beer, wine and liquor stores

 -5.4

Health and personal care stores

 -1.1

Health and personal care stores

 -1.1

Gasoline stations

 4.2

Gasoline stations

 4.2

Clothing and clothing accessories stores

 2.0

Clothing stores

 1.7

Shoe stores

 3.5

Jewelry, luggage, and leather goods stores

 2.2

Sports, hobby, music instruments, book stores

 2.6

Sporting goods and musical instrument stores

 3.0

Book stores and news dealers

 0.6

General merchandise stores

 1.3

Department stores

 -1.9

Other general merchandise stores

 1.3

Miscellaneous store retailers

 9.8

Florists

 26.9

Office supplies, stationery and gift stores

 14.4

Used merchandise stores

 2.0

Other miscellaneous store retailers

 6.3

Nonstore retailers

 7.7

Electronic shopping and mail-order houses

 11.4

Vending machine operators

 -5.6

Direct selling establishments

 -4.4

Food services and drinking places

 1.3

Special food services

 12.4

Drinking places, alcoholic beverages

 1.4

Restaurants and other eating places

 0.3

In wholesale trade, productivity rose 1.2 percent as output grew 1.6 percent and hours worked increased 0.4 percent. In retail trade, productivity and output grew 4.6 percent with hours worked virtually unchanged. In food services and drinking places, productivity rose 1.3 percent as output grew 3.5 percent and hours worked rose 2.2 percent.

These data are from the Labor Productivity and Costs program. Data are preliminary and may be revised. To learn more, see "Productivity and Costs by Industry: Wholesale Trade, Retail Trade, and Food Services and Drinking Places Industries, 2016" (HTML) (PDF). For additional charts, see Graphics for Economic News Releases: Productivity, Wholesale and Retail.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Productivity up in wholesale trade, retail trade, and food services and drinking places in 2016 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/productivity-up-in-wholesale-trade-retail-trade-and-food-services-and-drinking-places-in-2016.htm (visited October 08, 2024).

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