U.S. Productivity Report Due Aug. 6 Ahead of July Jobs Data
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to release preliminary second-quarter 2026 productivity and costs data at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time on Aug. 6, giving policymakers, businesses and the public a new national measure of output per hour, compensation and labor costs.
The release will come one day before the agency’s scheduled July Employment Situation report, which is set for 8:30 a.m. Eastern time on Aug. 7. Together, the two releases will provide closely timed updates on labor productivity, the cost of employing workers and the broader jobs picture.
What the productivity report will measure
The preliminary report will cover the nonfarm business sector and related industries. Its measures will include output, hours worked, hourly compensation and unit labor costs.
Productivity data describe how much output is produced relative to the hours worked. The report’s compensation and unit-labor-cost measures add information about pay and the labor costs associated with producing that output. The scheduled release will therefore update several parts of the national economic picture at once, rather than reporting a single headline measure.
The figures will be preliminary. The available evidence confirms the release date and the measures to be reported, but it does not provide the second-quarter results. That means the direction and size of any change in productivity, compensation or unit labor costs will not be known until the report is published.
What the previous revised data showed
The latest revised first-quarter release reported year-over-year nonfarm productivity growth of 2.8% in the first quarter of 2026.
On an annualized basis, the revised release reported first-quarter nonfarm productivity growth of 0.3%. It also reported annualized first-quarter unit labor-cost growth of 1.8%.
Those figures are the latest available comparison point before the second-quarter report. They describe the revised first-quarter results; they are not a forecast for the second quarter and do not establish what the new report will show.
Why the timing matters
The Aug. 6 release is important because it will update the national record on output per hour and labor costs shortly before the government reports July employment data. The sequence gives readers a two-day window into different but related parts of the labor and economic picture.
Productivity, compensation and unit labor costs can help frame how changes in production relate to hours worked and pay. The July jobs report, arriving the next morning, will provide the next scheduled federal update on employment conditions. The approved data do not support drawing a conclusion about a recession, a recovery or whether the second-quarter productivity figures will be strong or weak before publication.
The release is a national indicator rather than a report about a particular state or city. Its coverage of the nonfarm business sector is intended to measure conditions across broad parts of the U.S. economy.
What happens next
The BLS schedule sets the preliminary Productivity and Costs release for 8:30 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026. The July Employment Situation report is scheduled for the same time on Friday, Aug. 7.
The second-quarter productivity figures may later change. The available source material indicates that the preliminary numbers may be revised in September, so the Aug. 6 release should be treated as an initial reading rather than the final account of second-quarter productivity and costs.
Sources
- Schedule of Selected Releases 2026, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Productivity and Costs News Release – 2026 Q01 Results, Revised, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
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