Learning on new jobs versus old jobs. The newer the job, the greater will be the improvement in labor hours and cost. Conversely, when production has been under way for a long time, improvement will be less discernible. For example, for an 80 percent learning curve situation, the improvement between the i rst and second units will be 20 percent. However, if the product has been manufactured for 50 years, it will take another 50 years to reduce labor hours by 20 percent, assuming that yearly production volume remains the same. LO.1