Final answer:
In the United States, labor productivity growth has averaged approximately 1.9% per year for the past century, with variations over different time periods.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the United States, labor productivity growth has averaged approximately 1.9% per year for the past century.
According to the Department of Labor, U.S. productivity growth was fairly strong in the 1950s but then declined in the 1970s and 1980s before rising again in the second half of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s.
The rate of productivity growth measured by the change in output per hour worked averaged 3.2% per year from 1950 to 1970, dropped to 1.9% per year from 1970 to 1990, and then climbed back to over 2.3% from 1991 to the present, with another modest slowdown after 2001.