BLS news release: ” Multifactor productivity — defined as output per unit of combined inputs — increased in 55 of the 86  four-digit NAICS manufacturing industries in 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.  This was down from 2010, when multifactor productivity increased in 63 of those  industries. However, more industries recorded increases in multifactor productivity in both 2010 and 2011 than in any year since 2004. Three manufacturing industries recorded double-digit percent increases in multifactor productivity:  semiconductors and electronic components, other transportation equipment, and electric lighting equipment. Multifactor productivity is measured in two transportation industries. Multifactor productivity increased 1.2 percent in air transportation and decreased 1.6 percent in line-haul railroads. Multifactor productivity indexes relate the change in real output to the change in the combined inputs of  labor, capital, and intermediate purchases consumed in producing that output. Multifactor productivity growth measures the extent to which output growth has exceeded the growth in inputs, and reflects the joint influences on economic growth of a variety of factors that are not specifically accounted for on the input side, including technological change, returns to scale, enhancements in managerial and staff skills, changes in the organization of production, and other efficiency improvements.”