Last month's operating rate was down from 83.7 percent a year earlier.

That is the nation's highest operating rate in almost eight years.

For the last two decades, the operating rate has averaged 82 percent of capacity.

Analysts said this was a bad sign for factory operating rates in the months ahead.

Even with the improvement, the operating rate is still one percentage point below the 81.5 percent average of the last two decades.

The operating rate is closely watched as a sign of possible future inflation.

But the higher rate is still well below the 79.6 percent average operating rate over the last 20 years.

The operating rate measures not only output but also changes in productivity.

The nation's industrial operating rate declined 0.2 percent last month, the first drop since September.

That pushed the operating rate of American industry to another 15-year peak, the highest level since 1979.

Over all, the operating rate at manufacturing plants climbed to 81.3 percent in August.

Economists consider an operating rate of 85 percent as inflationary.

Before that, the operating rate had climbed for four successive months, from 81.1 percent in September.

But an 84 percent operating rate might not mean that factory capacity is really scarce.

The operating rate at auto plants fell to 75.2 percent last month, down two percentage points from August.

The operating rate at utilities jumped by 1.7 percentage points in August to 82.4 percent.

All year long, the Federal Reserve has kept a close eye on the operating rate of industry.

Growing exports in these categories have left them with exceptionally high operating rates.

Today the Government also reported the operating rate of factories, mines and utilities continued at a high level last month.

Productivity throughout the industry has improved, which means that companies can turn a profit at much lower operating rates than in the past.

Last month's rate still left production a percentage point below the operating rate of a year ago.

At that moment the operating rate was 53 percent, significantly below the goal of 90 percent.

The operating rate, climbing steadily for the last four months, is now at its highest level since November 1984, when it was also 81 percent.

October's operating rate was the highest since August 1984, when industry operated at 81.8 percent of capacity.

The largest increase came at auto assembly plants, where the operating rate rose 3.6 percentage points, to 74 percent.