[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 212 (Wednesday, November 3, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67776-67777]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-27727]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Bureau of Labor Statistics


Comment Request; Review of Productivity Statistics

ACTION: Notice of solicitation of comments.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Labor through the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
(BLS) is responsible for publishing measures of labor productivity and 
multifactor productivity for major sectors and industries of the United 
States economy. BLS periodically conducts formal reviews of its 
programs in order to assess their content, methodology, efficiency, and 
effectiveness. To enhance the quality and relevance of productivity 
data, BLS is soliciting comments on the scope and coverage of these 
data, on the methods used in constructing them, and on areas of 
interest for future program development.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the 
Addresses section of this notice on or before December 3, 2010.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to Michael J. Harper, Office of Productivity 
and Technology, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 2150, 2 Massachusetts 
Avenue, NE., Washington, DC 20212 or by e-mail to: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael J. Harper, Office of 
Productivity and Technology, Bureau of Labor Statistics, telephone 
number 202-691-5600, or by e-mail at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    The Department of Labor through the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
(BLS) is responsible for publishing measures of labor productivity and 
multifactor productivity for major sectors and industries of the United 
States economy. The Office of Productivity and Technology (OPT) differs 
from other BLS programs in that it does not conduct surveys to collect 
data. Instead, it produces productivity estimates from published and 
unpublished data collected and compiled by other BLS programs, the 
Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Census Bureau, other Federal 
statistical agencies, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System.
    Labor productivity is defined as output per hour worked. BLS 
reports quarterly on productivity growth and its components (output and 
hours) and on other measures, such as unit labor costs and hourly 
compensation. These measures are produced for the business, nonfarm 
business, and manufacturing sectors, and for nonfinancial corporations. 
The quarterly measures are designated by the Office of Management and 
Budget as a Principal Federal Economic Indicator. BLS also produces 
annual measures of labor productivity for about 400 detailed 
industries. BLS labor productivity data are available at the following 
Internet address: http://www.bls.gov/lpc/.
    BLS also produces estimates of multifactor productivity (MFP), 
which is defined as output per unit of combined inputs. The combined 
inputs include hours and capital services; in some cases, additional 
inputs include labor composition and intermediate goods and services. 
BLS reports MFP growth, along with its components (output, capital, 
hours, etc.) and other measures such as capital-labor ratios, capital 
user costs, and labor composition indexes. These measures are designed 
to analyze the effects of technological change on economic growth, the 
substitutability of inputs, and changes in the composition of inputs 
and outputs. BLS produces annual measures of multifactor productivity 
for private business, private nonfarm business, and manufacturing 
sectors and for many detailed industries. BLS MFP data are available at 
the following Internet address: http://www.bls.gov/mfp/.

II. Productivity Coverage and Methods

    The quarterly nonfarm business labor productivity measures are 
constructed within the conceptual framework of the

[[Page 67777]]

U.S. National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) published by the 
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The output data are based on a 
value-added concept and come from product-side estimates of Gross 
Domestic Product.
    The primary source of hours data is the BLS Current Employment 
Statistics (CES) program, which collects hours paid for nonsupervisory 
workers. These data are adjusted using data from the Current Population 
Survey, the National Compensation Survey, and other sources to account 
for differences between the desired concept of hours (hours worked for 
all employed persons) and the CES concept (hours paid for production 
and nonsupervisory employees).
    For detailed industries, annual output measures represent the total 
value of goods and services produced, and are based primarily on data 
from the U.S. Census Bureau. These measures use a sectoral output 
concept, which differs from real gross output in that it excludes 
output that is shipped to other establishments in the same industry. As 
with the nonfarm business sector productivity, industry hours are 
constructed primarily from payroll data from the BLS CES survey, 
supplemented with data from the CPS and other Federal data sources.
    Multifactor productivity is estimated in a conceptual framework 
based on the economic theory of the firm. This framework guides the 
construction and interpretation of the measures. For the private 
business and nonfarm business sectors, value added output is compared 
to inputs of labor and capital. For detailed industries, sectoral 
output is compared to capital and labor inputs as well as intermediate 
inputs of energy, non-energy materials and business services provided 
by establishments outside of each industry or sector.

III. Desired Focus of Comments

    Comments and recommendations are requested from the public on the 
following aspects of the BLS productivity measurement program:
     The scope and amount of detail covered by and published in 
the productivity datasets.
     The concepts and frameworks used in measuring outputs, 
inputs, and productivity.
     The sources of data used in productivity measurement.
     Areas of research that the BLS productivity program should 
emphasize.
    In your recommendations to the productivity program, it would be 
particularly helpful if you could explain how the changes would make 
the data more accurate or more useful.

    Signed at Washington, DC, this 28th day of October 2010.
Kimberley Hill,
Chief, Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[FR Doc. 2010-27727 Filed 11-2-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-24-P