Productivity growth - a mixed story

I last looked at productivity growth in March. Since then we have had two quarters of National Accounts data, so I thought it time to update some of the charts. In terms of GDP per hour worked, productivity has grown over Q1 and Q2 in 2012.

In terms of growth in nominal Non-Farm GDP per dollar paid in Non-Farm Employee Compensation our productivity has declined over Q1 and Q2 2012.

Last time I only looked a the data in annual terms (summed four quarters non-farm GDP divided by summed four quarters non-farm employee compensation). So we will start with the annual charts.

I have also compared the quarterly data (GDP/Compensation) with the quarterly data for the same quarter last year. This quarterly data is a little more noisy, but it tells a more up to date story.

As with the summed annual data, the negative growth rate on this productivity measure is now lower than it has been since the early 1980s.