Malaysia's labour productivity up 3.6 per cent in Q4 2022
17 Feb 2023 12:21am
Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the number of employees went up by 3.2 per cent and recorded an increase in value added per employee to RM24,915 for the same period.
"Brisk business activity in that quarter is reflected through an increase in the number of working hours by five per cent with an increase to 9.2 billion working hours recorded.
"Therefore, labour productivity measured by value added per working hour also grew by 1.9 per cent to RM43.10,” he said in a statement issued by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) today.
In terms of labour productivity, as measured by value added per employee, he said all sectors marked an increase led by construction with 10 per cent, followed by the mining and quarrying sectors, each recording an increase of 6.5 per cent.
Mohd Uzir said the services sector rose by four per cent with three subsectors continuing to strengthen at double-digit growth, namely real estate and business services (21.7 per cent), food and beverage and accommodation (16.4 per cent) and transportation and storage (11.9 per cent).
This was followed by positive growth in the wholesale and retail sub-sector with 4.8 per cent, 1.8 per cent growth for other services, information and communication (0.7 per cent), finance and insurance (0.1 per cent), while agriculture and manufacturing each recorded an increase of 1.6 per cent, he said.
"At the same time, for labour productivity expressed as value added per working hour, four sectors recorded positive growth, namely construction, mining and quarrying, services and manufacturing while the agricultural sector was still declining,” Mohd Uzir said.
The construction sector jumped eight per cent compared to a negative 2.1 per cent in the previous quarter, while the mining and quarrying sector strengthened by 4.7 per cent, he said.
The services sector rose 2.3 per cent with two sub-sectors recording double-digit growth namely food and beverage and accommodation at 19 per cent, real estate and business services (16.7 per cent), followed by positive growth in the transport and storage sub-sector (nine per cent), finance and insurance (6.5 per cent), wholesale and retail (1.7 per cent), and other services (0.2 per cent).
The manufacturing sector rose marginally by 0.4 per cent supported by the sub-sectors of electrical, electronic and optical products (3.7 per cent), non-metallic mineral products, base metals and fabricated metal products (1.3 per cent), and textile, clothing and leather products (1.1 per cent) while the agricultural sector fell marginally by 0.6 per cent.
On the overall performance of labour productivity for the year 2022, Mohd Uzir said labour productivity per employee strengthened at 5.4 per cent to record value added per employee of RM95,628 while value added per working hour jumped to 1.8 per cent with a value of RM41.7.
"Compared to the period before the pandemic, both the value of labour productivity per hour worked and labour productivity per employee has surpassed 2019, which is RM40.70 per hour and RM94,138 per employee,” he said.
He also said the manufacturing and service sectors' growth value had surpassed pre-pandemic levels while other sectors remained low. - BERNAMA
