According to the Statistics Department, Malaysia’s labour productivity increased by 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2023, with total hours worked increasing by 2.3% to 9.4 billion hours.
The country’s economy slowed to 3.0% in Q4 2023 from 3.3% in Q3 2023, while total employment grew by 2.5% to reach 16.3 million persons, Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said.
“With a stable economic and labour market growth, labour productivity measured as value added per hour worked has improved, reaching RM43.5 per hour in Q4 2023 compared to RM42.2 per hour in Q3 2023,” he stated.
Likewise, labour productivity per employment increased by 0.5% to RM25,080 per person in Q4 2023 from RM24,470 per person in Q3 2023, Mohd Uzir added.
In terms of sectoral performance, the Construction sector recorded the highest increase in labour productivity per hour worked at 2.6%, followed by Mining and Quarrying at 1.8%, Services at 1.5%, and Agriculture at 1.0%, while the Manufacturing sector saw a decline at negative 2.8%.
Mohd Uzir noted that overall labour productivity per hour worked for the year 2023 showed positive growth of 0.2% to reach RM41.9 per hour from RM41.8 per hour in 2022. Labour productivity per employment also grew by 0.9% to RM96,692 per person from RM95,858 per person in 2022.
“Two sectors, Construction and Services, displayed stable positive momentum while the other sectors keep fluctuating,” he commented.
Mohd Uzir emphasized the need for cohesive efforts to drive industrial productivity growth and build a strong workforce for the future, cautioning that the outlook is subject to challenging global market competition and uncertain macroeconomic trends.
Source: The Star
