Huge investments in new process and product technologies, facilities, employee training, and product development have reduced the number of man-hours required to produce a ton of steel from 10 to less than 4 – a 60% drop – in just 15 years. Today's production processes are technologically sophisticated, requiring more highly developed skills and workers with better training and education. To help meet this need, unskilled workers are being trained to develop new skills. The average hourly earnings in the steel industry was $24.87 in 2000; with benefits, the total employment cost per hour was $36.33. [AISI 2000]

Labor Productivity – SIC 331
(Labor output per hour, indexed to 1987)

Source: BLS 1996, 2001

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