PUTRAJAYA: 20 February 2020 (The Capital Post) – Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin, who is the Chief Statistician of Malaysia said that “Labour productivity drives the economic growth of the country. It indicates the output each worker can produce within a given amount of time depending on quality of human resources and technological progress”.
He also said that “In the fourth quarter of 2019, labour productivity measured as the ratio of value added to hours worked grew 1.5% with labour productivity level of RM42 per hour. Total hours worked was 8.82 billion (Q3 2019: 8.79 billion), increased 2.1% from 1.7% in the previous quarter”.
By dividing this volume with the total number of employment, there has been a downward trend in average hours worked. During this quarter, Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 3.6% after registering 4.4% in Q3 2019” he said.
He also claimed that 4.3% was the highest rate of the labour productivity growth in Q4 which was recorded by the construction sector. In Q3 2019, it was 1.6%.
The largest contributor to the Malaysia’s economy posted a growth of 2.5% in Q3 2019 for both Services and Manufacturing sectors. 2.9% in Q3 2019 was the growth for services and 1.2% in Q3 2019 with 2.9% for manufacturing.
Meanwhile, labour productivity for both Mining & Quarrying was recorded -0.3%. For agriculture, it was -5.8% contracted during that particular quarter.
From 1.4% in Q3 2019 with 2.3%, the employment has increased to 2.2% in Q3 2019 with 2.1 %. It was expressed through the labour productivity which actually has added the value for every employment.
Overall for 2019, Malaysia’s labour productivity by value added per hour worked rose to 2.2% in 2018 with 3.4% which is with a value of RM41 per hour (2018: RM40).
In the meantime, growth of labour productivity by value added per employment remained
at 2.2 per cent in 2018 with 2.2% which is with a value of RM93,909 per person (2018: RM91,932). – The Capital Post