Seafood industry

Fish and seafood products are enjoying a surge of popularity with consumers in the marketplace. However, the benefits of this rise have yet to be reflected in the long term productivity growth rates of the prepared fresh or frozen fish and seafoods industry. Productivity, as measured by output per hour, declined at an average annual rate of percent per year during the period. Limited technological diffusion and difficulties associated with processing perishable, highly variable, and seasonal products have contributed to productivity declines in this industry.
The productivity indexes represent the change over time in the ratio of the weighted output of a specified composite of products to the employee hours expended on that output. The output and employee hour series that underlie the productivity measures for the prepared fresh or frozen fish and seafoods industry are based on data from the Bureau of the Census. A more complete description of the methodology used to construct these measures is contained in the appendix at the end of this article.
Trends in productivity The industrys annual average percent decline in productivity reflects a percent rise in output and a percent increase in employee hours. Although the long term productivity trend was negative, there was significant year to year variation. During the period, annual increases in productivity occurred in years ranging from percent to percent. Productivity declines were registered in the remaining years, with the single largest decline occurring in, when productivity fell percent.
Many of the annual movements in productivity were associated with changes in output. In years in which output advanced, there were increases in productivity. Similarly, productivity declined in of the years that output fell. Additional factors that may have adversely affected productivity include the small and fragmented nature of industry firms and the continued dependence on labor intensive techniques in some areas of production attributable to the complex handling requirements of some products.