PUTRAJAYA, Feb 20 — Malaysia’s labour productivity per hour grew by 1.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024 (Q4 2024), reaching RM44.2 per hour, based on the Q4 2024 Labour Productivity Statistics released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia today.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said Malaysia’s economy expanded 5.0 per cent in Q4 2024 compared to 5.4 per cent in Q3 2024, while total hours worked increased by 3.5 per cent registering 9.7 billion hours(Q3 2024: 2.7 per cent, 9.7 billion hours).
“The total number of employed persons grew by 2.7 per cent year-on-year, reaching 16.8 million in Q4 2024 (Q3 2024: 2.9 per cent; 16.7 million persons). Labour productivity per employment increased by 2.2 per cent, with value-added per employment rising to RM25,647 per person (Q3 2024: 2.4 per cent; RM25,081 per person),” he said in a statement today.
Mohd Uzir said the sectoral performance for labour productivity expressed as value-added per hour for this quarter was driven by the growth in the construction sector at 18.7 per cent (Q3 2024: 20.0 per cent), followed by the manufacturing sector at 2.4 per cent (Q3 2024: 3.4 per cent) and the services sector at 0.9 per cent (Q3 2024: 1.4 per cent).
The mining and quarrying sector and the agriculture sector slumped to -2.7 per cent (Q3 2024: -5.7 per cent) and -1.8 per cent (Q3 2024: 4.2 per cent), respectively.
The performance in labour productivity per hour for the services sector in the fourth quarter of 2024 was propelled by the growth in transportation and storage (7.6 per cent), real estate and business services (6.1 per cent), finance and insurance (3.2 per cent), other services (1.7 per cent), and information and communication (0.7 per cent).
“Three subsectors demonstrated negative growth, namely utilities (-1.5 per cent), wholesale and retail trade (-0.5 per cent), and food, beverages and accommodation (-0.5 per cent),” he added.
Meanwhile, sectoral labour productivity, measured by value-added per employment, was driven by sustained growth in the construction sector at 19.7 per cent (Q3 2024: 18.9 per cent), followed by the manufacturing sector at 3.0 per cent (Q3 2024: 4.1 per cent) and the services sector at 1.8 per cent (Q3 2024: 1.3 per cent).
The agriculture sector and the mining and quarrying sector declined at -1.7 per cent (Q3 2024: 3.0 per cent) and -1.3 per cent (Q3 2024: -4.0 per cent), respectively.
Providing further insights into Malaysia’s overall labour productivity performance for 2024, Mohd Uzir noted that labour productivity per hour grew by 2.1 per cent (2023: 0.1 per cent), with value-added per hour reaching RM42.8 (2023: RM41.9).
“Similarly, labour productivity per employment maintained positive momentum, rising by 2.4 per cent (2023: 0.7 per cent) to a value-added per employment of RM99,137 per person (2023: RM96,780 per person),” he concluded. — Bernama
