Malaysia’s labour productivity grew in Q4 2018

February 26, 2019 editor

Malaysia’s labour productivity by hours worked in 2018 increased 3.4% while it recorded a growth of 2.2% by employment. This was revealed in the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s Labour Productivity of Fourth Quarter 2018 report on Friday (22 February).

In terms of specific sectors, labour productivity was observed in key sectors as follows:

Manufacturing sector
Labour productivity in this sector rose 2.5% in Q4 2018, after a growth of 2.4% in Q3 2018. The highest growth came from transport equipment, other manufacturing and repair at 7%, followed by wood products, furniture, paper products and printing at 4.7%.

Services sector
The services sector recorded a growth of labour productivity at 3.7% in the last quarter (Q3 2018: 5.1%).

Information and communication registered the highest labour productivity growth, at 8.7%. In Q3 2018, growth in this field was at 10.3%. In the meantime, wholesale and retail trade grew 6.6% followed by utilities and finance & insurance, of which both recorded a growth of 4.7%.

Agriculture sector
The agriculture sector registered a slight decline of 0.3% in Q4 2018, versus a decline of 1.4% in Q3 2018.

In this quarter, crops and livestock eased 0.% (Q3 2018: 1.9%); forestry & logging and fishing continued its negative growth by registering 2.2% (Q32018: -13.1%) and 3.5% (Q3 2018: -3.5%) respectively.

Construction sector
Labour productivity in this sector grew 5.2% in Q4 2018. In Q3 2018, it grew by 4.3%.

Mining and Quarrying sector
In this sector, labour productivity rebounded to 2.3%, versus a decline of 2.9% in Q3 2018