Economy
August 20, 2019
BLS Reports Strong Productivity Growth in the Second Quarter
Written by Tim Triplett
The labor productivity of nonfarm businesses grew by 2.3 percent in the second quarter of 2019. The average of the last six quarters has been 0.40 percent. Unit labor costs increased 2.5 percent year over year, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.
Unit labor costs and productivity changes are reported quarterly by the BLS and results for Q2 2019 were released last week. All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally adjusted annual rates. This basic information is useful to better understand the steel market. One way of looking at GDP is that it is the growth of the working age population multiplied by their productivity. Steel consumption is correlated with the growth of GDP.
