[Excerpt] Labor productivity rose for most industries during the first decade of the millennium. The expansion of information technology (IT) that fueled rapid productivity growth during the 1990s continued after 2000, and improvements in IT hardware and software, mobile telecommunications, data communications, and the growth of the internet contributed further to productivity growth. This productivity growth benefited not only producers and sellers of IT products, but also firms that used IT to improve efficiency in production and distribution. Other factors, including a combination of cyclical and structural changes, also affected productivity growth from 2000 to 2010. In contrast to the strong output growth that contributed to productivity gains in the late 1990s, the two economic downturns during the 2000–2010 period resulted in declines or slower growth in output for many industries. As output fell, many industries reduced the number and hours of workers they employed. In some industries, hours fell more than output. The resulting job losses and continued declines or weak growth in labor hours accompanied the 2000-2010 productivity increases in many of the sectors and industries studied in this Spotlight on Statistics.