In my view the most important statistic about an economy in the long run is productivity growth. Productivity generally measures how much output is produced per unit of input. Inputs can be labor or other resources. More output per unit of input is good, it is an indication of efficiency, but also of greater return on the investment of labor or other resources. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out data on productivity and recently released data for 2025 on the wholesale and retail trade industries. These are labor intensive industries, accounting for a lot of employment. For wholesale trade, output increased 3.1% and hours worked declined 1.3%, so there was a 4.3% productivity increase. In retail trade, output increased 2.5% and hours worked declined .4% for a 2.9% productivity rise. (BLS Release)
Unit labor costs declined in 2025 in wholesale trade at .4% rate and in retail trade at a .7% rate. From 1987 to 2025, wholesale trade averaged a 2.4% productivity increase annually and retail trade a 3.2% one. Unit labor costs rose over this period on average 1.5% per year in wholesale trade and .1% in retail trade. An interesting look at productivity in a particularly labor intensive industry. We will see if artificial intelligence and robotics can affect even these businesses. Charts for other major industries are also available at BLS.
