PUTRAJAYA, Feb 22 — Malaysia’s labour productivity posted a positive growth of 0.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of (Q4) 2023 with total hours worked increased by 2.3 per cent to register 9.4 billion hours, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said Malaysia’s economy moderated to 3.0 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023 as compared to 3.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2023, while the total number of employment indicates a year-on-year growth of 2.5 per cent, registered 16.3 million persons.
“With the propel of stable economic and labour market growth, labour productivity measured as value added per hour worked in the fourth quarter of 2023 has improved at 0.7 per cent, recording RM43.5 per hour compared to RM42.2 per hour in the third quarter of 2023,” he said in a statement today.
At the same time, Mohd Uzir said labour productivity as expressed by value added per employment maintained its positive growth, with a 0.5 per cent increase to RM25,080 per person in the fourth quarter of 2023 from RM24,470 per person in the third quarter of 2023.
In terms of sectoral performance for labour productivity per hour worked, he said the Construction sector steered the overall performance by posting an increase of 2.6 per cent year-on-year, followed by the Mining and Quarrying sector at 1.8 per cent, Services sector at 1.5 per cent, and Agriculture sector at 1.0 per cent, while the Manufacturing sector showed a decline at negative 2.8 per cent.
Commenting further on the overall performance of labour productivity for the year 2023, Mohd Uzir said the performance of labour productivity per hour worked for the year 2023 showed positive growth of 0.2 per cent with a value of RM41.9 per hour from RM41.8 per hour in 2022.
“Likewise, labour productivity per employment demonstrated a positive momentum at 0.9 per cent to record value added per employment of RM96,692 per person (2022: RM95,858 per person).
“Two sectors namely Construction and Services displayed stable positive momentum while the other sectors keep fluctuating,” he said.
Mohd Uzir concluded that building a strong workforce for the future is the key factor for the enhancement of labour productivity and therefore, more cohesive efforts are needed to drive industrial productivity growth.
“Nevertheless, the outlook is subject to the challenging global context of increasingly competitive markets and uncertain global macroeconomic trends,” he added.
— Bernama
