Labour productivity in the country grew 3.6% in Q4

PETALING JAYA: Labour productivity in the country grew 3.6% (RM85,031) in the fourth quarter of 2017 after registering 4.1% (RM82,433) growth in Q3 2017. During this quarter, Malaysia’s economy expanded 5.9% (Q3 2017: 6.2%) while employment rose 2.2% (Q3 2017: 2.0%).
Agriculture sector registered labour productivity growth of 4.8% (Q3 2017: 5.2%) at RM55,490. The value add of this sector increased significantly at 10.7% (Q3 2017: 4.1%) while employment rebounded to 5.6% (Q3 2017: -1.1%).
Labour productivity for mining and quarrying sector turned around to 4.7% (RM1,240,137) from a negative growth of 8.5% in the previous quarter. Value add of this sector recorded a marginal decrease of 0.5% (Q3 2017: +3.1%), while employment declined at a faster rate of 5.0% (Q3 2017: +12.6%).
Manufacturing sector labour productivity increased 3.6% (Q3 2017: 5.1%) at RM115,434. In this quarter, value add rose 5.4% (Q3 2017: 7.0%) while employment grew slightly by 1.8% (Q3 2017: 1.7%).
Construction sector recorded labour productivity growth of 1.4% (Q3 2017: 4.8%) at RM39,967. The growth of value add of this sector was 5.8% (Q3 2017: 6.1%) while employment rose 4.3% (Q3 2017: 1.2%).
Labour productivity of services sector increased 4.7% (Q3 2017: 3.7%) in this quarter with a value of RM76,794. It registered a growth of 6.2% (Q3 2017: 6.5%) while employment grew 1.5% (Q3 2017: 2.7%).
For the year 2017, labour productivity increased 3.6% (2016: 3.5%) with a value of RM81,039 (2016: RM78,244). In line with the expansion of value add at 5.9% (2016: 4.2%), employment increased 2.2% (2016: 0.7%).