Last two decades have seen historically slow productivity growth: Average annualized change in each component’s contribution to productivity growth and their total, by business cycle
| Date | Total factor productivity | Labor quality | Capital-deepening | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1948q4 | 0.8% | 0.3% | 3.0% | 0 |
| 1953q2 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 0 |
| 1957q3 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 0 |
| 1960q2 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 0 |
| 1969q4 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0 |
| 1973q4 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0 |
| 1980q1 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0 |
| 1981q3 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0 |
| 1990q3 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 0 |
| 2001q1 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 0 |
| 2007q4 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0 |
| 2019q4 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 0 |
Source: Fernald (2023) data from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.