Malaysia's labour productivity records positive growth in Q4 2021 - DOSM

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's labour productivity as measured by value added per employment picked up in the fourth quarter last year by 1.7 per cent, after falling 5.6 per cent the previous quarter.

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the positive growth was made possible as the production of goods and services rose faster than the employment growth rate.

He said during the quarter Malaysia's economy had also turned around to 3.6 per cent after dropping 4.5 per cent the previous quarter while employment went up by 1.8 per cent (Q3 2021: 1.2 per cent) following the resumption of economic activities in line with the transition to Phase Four of the National Recovery Plan.

"Value added per employment in this quarter amounted to RM24,006 per person compared to RM23,603 per person in the same quarter in 2020," he said in a statement today.

Mohd Uzir said longer business operation hours was also observed in this quarter, thus translated into the increase of total hours worked by 2.3 per cent to record 8.8 billion hours.

DOSM-LABOUR 2 (LAST) KUALA LUMPUR

"Therefore, labour productivity as measured by value added per hour worked also posted an increase with a growth of 1.3 per cent after decreasing marginally by 0.6 per cent in the preceding quarter. Value added per hour worked in this quarter amounted to RM42.2 per hour (Q4 2020: RM41.7 per hour)," he said.

In terms of value added per employment by economic sector, the chief statistician noted that three sectors recorded positive growth during the quarter namely manufacturing, agriculture and services, while mining and quarrying, as well as construction sectors, remained sluggish.

He said, the manufacturing sector posted the highest growth of labour productivity by 5.3 per cent, the agriculture sector went up by 2.9 per cent, while the services sector grew one per cent.

Mohd Uzir said the overall performance of labour productivity per employment for 2021 rose by 1.8 per cent (2020: -5.5 per cent) to record value added per employment of RM90,647 per person (2020: RM89,022 per person), while value added per hour worked declined by 2.6 per cent (2020: 3.4 per cent) with a value of RM41.0 per hour (2020: RM42.0 per hour).

"In comparison with the pre-pandemic period, labour productivity per hour worked had exceeded the level of 2019 (RM40.7 per hour) while labour productivity per employment remained low (2019: RM94,162 per person).

"Manufacturing was the only sector that has surpassed the pre-pandemic level while the others were still below," he said adding that the global economy including Malaysia was projected to be on a commendable performance throughout this year.

-- BERNAMA