Recent productivity trends

Recently published Total Factor Productivity trend data are analyzed to ascertain whether there is a difference in trend between the Services Sector and the Goods Sector. These data represent performance of the 100 largest U.S. companies for the year ending October 31, 2002. It is noted that the growth rate for the Goods Sector exceeds the rate for the Service Sector by approximately one percentage point. Since the Services Sector represents approximately eighty percent of the economy, there is significant opportunity for a major impact on the economy if parity between the two sectors were achieved through the improvement of a single percentage point in the Services Sector.