Malaysia's 2017 Labour Productivity Up 3.6 Pct To RM81,039

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 (Bernama) -- Malaysia’s labour productivity increased 3.6 per cent to RM81,039 (US$20,690) in 2017 from RM78,244 (US$19,975) previously, said the Department of Statistics. It said this was in line with the expansion of value added of the sector by 5.9 per cent (2016: 4.2 per cent) and employment by 2.2 per cent (2016: 0.7 per cent). As for the fourth quarter (4Q), the country’s labour productivity grew 3.6 per cent to RM85,031 after registering a 4.1 per cent growth to RM82,433 in Q3 2017. “The agriculture sector registered labour productivity growth of 4.8 per cent in Q4 (Q3 2017: 5.2 per cent) at RM55,490. The value added of this sector increased significantly at 10.7 per cent (Q3 2017: 4.1 per cent) while employment rebounded to 5.6 per cent (Q3 2017: -1.1 per cent),” it said. As for the labour productivity for mining and quarrying sector, it turned around to 4.7 per cent (RM1,240,137) from a negative growth of 8.5 per cent in the previous quarter. Value added of this sector recorded a marginal decrease of 0.5 per cent (Q3 2017: +3.1 per cent), while employment declined at a faster rate of 5.0 per cent (Q3 2017: +12.6 per cent). The manufacturing sector labour productivity increased 3.6 per cent (Q3 2017: 5.1) at RM115,434. In this quarter, value added rose 5.4 per cent (Q3 2017: 7.0 per cent) while employment grew slightly by 1.8 per cent (Q3 2017: 1.7 per cent). The construction sector recorded labour productivity growth of 1.4 per cent (Q3 2017: 4.8 per cent) at RM39,967. The growth of value added of this sector was 5.8 per cent (Q3 2017: 6.1 per cent), while employment rose 4.3 per cent (Q3 2017: 1.2 per cent). The Labour Productivity of Services sector increased 4.7 per cent (Q3 2017: 3.7 per cent) in this quarter with a value of RM76,794. The value added of this sector registered a growth of 6.2 per cent (Q3 2017: 6.5 per cent), while employment grew 1.5 per cent (Q3 2017: 2.7 per cent). (US1 = RM 3.91) -- BERNAMA