Abstract
THE U.S. CHEMICAL INDUSTRY has now seen 24 straight years of rising labor productivity, or output per workhour. And over the past few years, the increases in labor productivity plus generally lower unit labor costs, or the cost to produce each unit of output, have been much appreciated by chemical producers fighting higher energy and raw material costs. Using data from the Federal Reserve Board and the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, C&EN calculates that productivity rose 1.9% in 2006 from the previous year to an index of 145.6 (all indexes are based on 1997 = 100). Meanwhile, the increase in productivity for the chemical industry was greater than that for hourly wages, thus producing a much-needed decline in unit labor costs. This measure fell 2.5% to an index of 101.5 after an increase of 0.4% in 2005. It should be noted that late last year the Federal Reserve Board considerably ...
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