Dispersion Statistics on Productivity (DiSP)

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Dispersion Statistics on Productivity (DiSP)

Dispersion Statistics on Productivity (DiSP) is an experimental data product jointly developed and published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Census Bureau.

Productivity measures are critical for understanding economic performance. Official BLS productivity statistics, which are available for major sectors and detailed industries, provide information on the sources of aggregate productivity growth.

A large body of research shows that within-industry variation in productivity provides important insights into productivity dynamics. This research reveals large and persistent productivity differences across businesses even within narrowly-defined industries. These differences vary across industries and over time and are related to productivity-enhancing reallocation.

Since there are no official statistics providing this information, the BLS and the Census Bureau are collaborating to create experimental measures of within-industry productivity dispersion. These measures complement the official BLS aggregate and industry-level productivity growth statistics and thereby improve our understanding of the rich productivity dynamics in the U.S. economy.

The underlying micro data for these measures are available for use by qualified researchers on approved projects in the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers.

These DiSP confirm the presence of large productivity differences, and we hope that these statistics will further encourage research into understanding these differences.

NEW: DiSP is now available for the retail sector covering every five years from 1987-2017.

 

Manufacturing

  • Productivity measures
    • Output per hour
    • Total factor productivity
  • Dispersion statistics
    • Standard deviation
    • Interquartile range
    • Inter-decile range (90-10)
    • Upper range (99-90)
    • Lower range (10-01)
  • 4-digit NAICS
  • 1987-2021

 

Retail

  • Productivity measures
    • Output per hour for establishments
    • Output per hour for firms
  • Dispersion statistics
    • Standard deviation
    • Interquartile range
    • Interdecile range (90-10)
    • Upper ranges (99-90, 90-75, 75-50)
    • Lower ranges (10-01, 25-10, 50-25)
  • Industry share of total hours worked
  • 4-digit NAICS
  • Every five years from 1987-2017

Download experimental Dispersion Statistics on Productivity (DiSP) data tables for the manufacturing and retail sectors below. Variable definitions can be found in the DiSP Definitions below and in the DiSP README files (Manufacturing and Retail).

The Census Bureau has reviewed this data product to ensure appropriate access, use, and disclosure avoidance protection of the confidential source data. Project No. P-7526913, Disclosure Review Board (DRB) approval numbers: CBDRB-FY24-0303, CBDRB-FY25-0421.

Productivity Measure Data Tables

 

Sector

Productivity Measure

Frequency

Availability

CSV

Manufacturing

Output per hour

Annual

1987-2021

output_per_hour.csv

Manufacturing

Total factor productivity

Annual

1987-2021

total_factor_productivity.csv

Retail

Output per hour

Every five years

1987-2017

output_per_hour_estab.csv
output_per_hour_firm.csv

Note: Cells with identified data quality concerns are suppressed with a publication flag ‘S’. Cells suppressed for disclosure concerns are suppressed with a publication flag ‘D’.

For reference, users may be interested in establishment counts by industry. The Business Dynamics Statistics 4-digit NAICS table provides establishment counts by 2017 NAICS.

Prior Versions of the DiSP Data

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Manufacturing and Retail

naics4 – 4-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code (longitudinally consistent 2017 NAICS codes) 

year – 4-digit year

sd – standard deviation

d7525 - difference between the 75th and 25th percentile of the within-industry distribution of the natural log of productivity in a given year

d9010 - difference between the 90th and 10th percentile of the within-industry distribution of the natural log of productivity in a given year

d1001 - difference between the 10th and 1st percentile of the within-industry distribution of the natural log of productivity in a given year

d9990 - difference between the 99th and 90th percentile of the within-industry distribution of the natural log of productivity in a given year

<variable name>* - asterisk indicates activity weighted dispersion measure (output per hour weighted by total hours; total factor productivity weighted by cost-share-based input index)

 

Retail Only

d9075 – difference between the 90th and 75th percentile of the within-industry distribution of the natural log of productivity in a given year

d7550 – difference between the 75th and 50th percentile of the within-industry distribution of the natural log of productivity in a given year

d5025 – difference between the 50th and 25th percentile of the within-industry distribution of the natural log of productivity in a given year

d2510 – difference between the 25th and 10th percentile of the within-industry distribution of the natural log of productivity in a given year

fraction_variance_within_firm – fraction of within-industry variation coming from within-firm variation [variable in output_per_hour_firm.csv only]

hours_share – industry share of total hours worked

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Manufacturing

Two productivity measures are created:

  • Output per hour
  • Total factor productivity (cost-share-based; previously called multifactor productivity)

Productivity measures are created using:

For detailed information on methodology see:

Blackwood, G. Jacob, Cheryl Grim, Rachel Nesbit, Cody Tuttle, and Zoltan Wolf. 2023. “Collaborative Micro-productivity Project: Establishment-Level Productivity Dataset, 1972-2020.” CES Discussion Paper Series, CES-WP-23-65.

Cunningham, Cindy, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, Jay Stewart, and Zoltan Wolf. 2023. “Dispersion in Dispersion:  Measuring Establishment-Level Differences in Productivity.” Review of Income and Wealth, 69(4): 999-1032.  [Earlier version: CES Discussion Paper Series, CES-WP-18-25RRR (2022)]. 

 

Retail

Two productivity measures are created:

  • Output per hour for establishments
  • Output per hour for firms

Productivity measures are created using:

For detailed information on methodology, see:

Smith, Dominic, G. Jacob Blackwood, Michael D. Giandrea, Cheryl Grim, Jay Stewart, and Zoltan Wolf. 2025. “National Chains and Trends in Retail Productivity Dispersion.” CES Discussion Paper Series, CES-WP-25-64. 

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The Dispersion Statistics on Productivity (DiSP) are the result of a collaboration between the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the U.S. Census Bureau, the Collaborative Microproductivity Project (CMP).  Below, we provide links to selected publications, blogs, and presentations related to the CMP and the DiSP.

Blackwood, G. Jacob, Cindy Cunningham, Matthew Dey, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, Rachel Nesbit, Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, Jay Stewart, Cody Tuttle, and Zoltan Wolf. 2025. "Job Tasks, Worker Skills, and Productivity." CES Discussion Paper Series, CES-WP-25-63.

 

Blackwood, G. Jacob, Cindy Cunningham, Matthew Dey, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, Rachel Nesbit, Sabrina Pabilonia, Jay Stewart, Cody Tuttle, and Zoltan Wolf. 2025. "Opening the Black Box: Task and Skill Mix and Productivity Dispersion." Technology, Productivity, and Economic Growth, ed. Susanto Basu, Lucy P. Eldridge, John C. Haltiwanger, and Erich Strassner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Blackwood, G. Jacob, Lucia S. Foster, Cheryl A. Grim, John Haltiwanger, and Zoltan Wolf. 2021. "Macro and Micro Dynamics of Productivity: From Devilish Details to Insights." American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 13(3): 142-172.

Blackwood, G. Jacob, Cheryl Grim, Rachel Nesbit, Cody Tuttle, and Zoltan Wolf. 2023. “Collaborative Micro-productivity Project: Establishment-Level Productivity Dataset, 1972-2020.” CES Discussion Paper Series, CES-WP-23-65.

Cunningham, Cindy, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, Jay Stewart, and Zoltan Wolf. 2023. “Dispersion in Dispersion:  Measuring Establishment-Level Differences in Productivity.” Review of Income and Wealth, 69(4): 999-1032.  [Earlier version: CES Discussion Paper Series, CES-WP-18-25RRR (2022)].

Cunningham, Cindy, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, Sabrina Pabilonia, Jay Stewart, and Zoltan Wolf. 2021. "Chaos Before Order: Productivity Patterns in U.S. Manufacturing." International Productivity Monitor, 41(Fall): 138-152.

Dinlersoz, Emin, and Zoltan Wolf. 2023. "Automation, Labor Share, and Productivity: Plant-level Evidence from US Manufacturing." Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 33(4): 604-626. [Earlier version: CES Discussion Paper Series, CES-WP-18-39 (2018)]. 

Foster, Lucia, John Haltiwanger, and Cody Tuttle. 2022. “Rising Markups or Changing Technology?” CES Discussion Paper Series, CES-WP-22-38.

Foster, Lucia, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, and Zoltan Wolf. 2021. “Innovation, Productivity Dispersion, and Productivity Growth.” In Measuring and Accounting for Innovation in the 21st Century, ed. Carol Corrado, Jonathan Haskel, Javier Miranda, and Daniel Sichel. Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.

Foster, Lucia, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, and Zoltan Wolf. 2018. “Firm innovation and productivity: Searching for black holes.” VOX column.

Foster, Lucia, Cheryl Grim, and John Haltiwanger. 2016. “Reallocation in the Great Recession:  Cleansing or Not?” Journal of Labor Economics, 34(S1): S293-S331.

Foster, Lucia, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, and Zoltan Wolf. 2016. “Firm-Level Dispersion in Productivity: Is the Devil in the Details?” American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 106(5): 95-98.

Foster, Lucia, Cheryl Grim, Sabrina Pabilonia, Jay Stewart, Zoltan Wolf, and Cindy Zoghi. 2014. “Collaborative Micro-Productivity Project.” Presented at Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee, December 12, 2014, U.S. Census Bureau, Suitland, MD.

Foster, Lucia and Cheryl Grim. 2014. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau Collaborate to Create New Productivity Statistics.” Research at the Center for Economic Studies and the Research Data Centers: 2014, Chapter 2, pp. 11-18.

Foster, Lucia, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, and Zoltan Wolf. 2014. “A Tarnished Silver Lining:  The Great Recession and Productivity.” Research Matters Blog, U.S. Census Bureau, Suitland, MD.

Grim, Cheryl. 2019. “What Drives Productivity Growth?.” U.S. Census Bureau, America Counts: Stories Behind the Numbers.

Smith, Dominic, G. Jacob Blackwood, Michael D. Giandrea, Cheryl Grim, Jay Stewart, and Zoltan Wolf. 2025. “National Chains and Trends in Retail Productivity Dispersion.” CES Discussion Paper Series, CES-WP-25-64.

 

Smith, Dominic, G. Jacob Blackwood, Michael D. Giandrea, Cheryl Grim, Jay Stewart, and Zoltan Wolf. 2024. “Productivity Dispersion and Structural Change in Retail Trade.” CES Discussion Paper Series, CES-WP-23-60R.

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Initial Release Date

September 2019

Learn More

Questions? Contact us at [email protected].

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Page Last Revised - September 25, 2025