What is productivity?
Productivity is a ratio relating output to one or more of the inputs associated with producing that output. An increase in output per unit of input is an increase in productivity. The most common productivity measure is labor productivity, which relates output to employment or labor hours. BLS has been publishing international comparisons of manufacturing labor productivity, as measured by output (value added) per hour worked, for many years. There are multifactor productivity measures as well, where output is related to two or more inputs. BLS has produced a three-country comparison of manufacturing multifactor productivity, as measured by output (value added) per unit of combined labor and capital inputs. (See “Manufacturing Multifactor Productivity in Three Countries,” PDF (2,123K) by Wolodar Lysko, Monthly Labor Review, July 1995, pp. 39-55.) A more inclusive productivity measure, used by BLS to compare component manufacturing industries within the United States, relates output, me
