2005 USA Labor Values

Figure 1 and Table 1 list industries in order of declining labor values, as of 2005. Industries are as aggregated in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), and labor values are in units of person-years per $1,000 output. Table 1 also shows direct labor coefficients for each industry. Direct labor coefficients are the full time equivalent staff hired in each industry. Labor values for each industry are the sum of direct labor values and the labor embodied in the inputs purchased by that industry. For example, the labor embodied in the commodities produced by "Food Services and Drinking Places" includes the labor embodied in commodities purchased by such establishements from the Construction; Real Estate; Miscellaneous Professional, Scientific and Technical Services; and Wholesale Trade industries.

I can think of other analyses to do with this and related data, such as some measure of average wage in an appropriate numeraire. For example, one might examine the rate of exploitation, the variation in the organic composition of capital by industry, and the differences between prices and labor values.

Figure 1: 2005 Embodied Labor Values

Industry	Embodied Labor Values (Person-years per Thousand $ Output)	Direct Labor Coefficient (Person-years per Thousand $ Output)
Social Assistance	0.0219	0.0185
Food Services and DrinkingPlaces	0.0200	0.0157
Forestry, Fishing, and Related Activities	0.0192	0.0103
Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation	0.0174	0.0138
Administrative and Support Services	0.0172	0.0136
Educational Services	0.0169	0.0134
Amusements, Gambling, and Recreation Industries	0.0152	0.0122
Other Services, Except Government	0.0152	0.0112
Hospitals and Nursing and Residental Care Facilities	0.0146	0.0107
Warehousing and Storage	0.0141	0.0127
Wood Products	0.0141	0.00537
Apparel and Leather and Allied Products	0.0139	0.00840
Retail Trade	0.0137	0.0106
Accomodation	0.0133	0.00986
State and Local General Government	0.0129	0.00971
Furniture and Related Products	0.0128	0.00651
Printing and Related Support Activities	0.0119	0.00719
Textile Mills and Textile Product Mills	0.0119	0.00548
Other Transportation and Support Activities	0.0111	0.00908
Construction	0.0110	0.00623
Federal Government Enterprises	0.0105	0.00803
Ambulatory Health Care Services	0.0103	0.00727
Fabricated Metal Products	0.0102	0.00555
State and Local Government Enterprises	0.00996	0.00525
Truck Transportation	0.00989	0.00539
Motor Vehicles, Bodies and Trailers, and Parts	0.00963	0.00226
Waste Management and Remediation Services	0.00923	0.00492
Plastics and Rubber Products	0.0922	0.00410
Machinery	0.00920	0.00399
Misc. Professional, Scientific and Technical Services	0.00914	0.00501
Miscellaneous Manufacturing	0.00903	0.00450
Nonmetallic Mineral Products	0.00898	0.00444
Paper Products	0.00895	0.00302
Food and Beverage and Tobacco Products	0.00890	0.00247
Computer Systems Design and Related Services	0.00888	0.00627
Computer and Electronic Products	0.00880	0.00340
Electrical Equipment, Appliances, and Components	0.00880	0.00393
Information and Data Processing Services	0.00869	0.00339
Other Transportation Equipment	0.00847	0.00349
Air Transportation	0.00841	0.00352
Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, Museums, Etc.	0.00831	0.00512
Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries	0.00821	0.00371
Federal General Government	0.00812	0.00430
Wholesale Trade	0.00811	0.00526
Insurance Carriers and Related Activities	0.00805	0.00372
Rental and Leasing Services and Lessors of Intangible Assets	0.00784	0.00243
Water Transportation	0.00780	0.00159
Farms	0.00778	0.00264
Legal Services	0.00758	0.00512
Management of Companies and Enterprises	0.00757	0.00469
Publishing Industries (Includes Software)	0.00751	0.00317
Primary Metals	0.00736	0.00237
Rail Transportation	0.00686	0.00326
Support Activities for Mining	0.00656	0.00263
Fed. Reserve Banks, Credit Intermediation, Etc.	0.00635	0.00408
Mining, Except Oil and Gas	0.00623	0.00329
Chemical Products	0.00621	0.00160
Broadcasting and Telecommunications	0.00598	0.00188
Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Investments	0.00542	0.00246
Pipeline Transportation	0.00524	0.000922
Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles	0.00514	0.000918
Real Estate	0.00326	0.000687
Petroleum and Coal Products	0.00325	0.000274
Utilities	0.00294	0.00133
Oil and Gas Extraction	0.00250	0.000507