Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s labour productivity per hour grew by 1.4 percent 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.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin reported that Malaysia’s economy expanded 5.0 percent in Q4 2024 compared to 5.4 percent in Q3 2024. The total hours worked increased by 3.5 percent, registering 9.7 billion hours, up from 2.7 percent and 9.7 billion hours in Q3 2024.
The total number of employed persons grew by 2.7 percent year-on-year, reaching 16.8 million in Q4 2024, compared to 2.9 percent and 16.7 million persons in Q3 2024. Labour productivity per employment increased by 2.2 percent, with value-added per employment rising to RM25,647 per person from RM25,081 per person in Q3 2024.
Mohd Uzir highlighted that the sectoral performance for labour productivity, expressed as value-added per hour for this quarter, was driven by growth in the construction sector at 18.7 percent, followed by the manufacturing sector at 2.4 percent and the services sector at 0.9 percent.
The mining and quarrying sector, along with the agriculture sector, experienced declines of -2.7 percent and -1.8 percent, respectively, compared to -5.7 percent and 4.2 percent in Q3 2024.
Performance in labour productivity per hour for the services sector in Q4 2024 was bolstered by growth in transportation and storage (7.6 percent), real estate and business services (6.1 percent), finance and insurance (3.2 percent), other services (1.7 percent), and information and communication (0.7 percent).
Three subsectors showed negative growth, namely utilities (-1.5 percent), wholesale and retail trade (-0.5 percent), and food, beverages, and accommodation (-0.5 percent).
Sectoral labour productivity, measured by value-added per employment, was propelled by sustained growth in the construction sector at 19.7 percent, followed by the manufacturing sector at 3.0 percent and the services sector at 1.8 percent.
The agriculture sector and the mining and quarrying sector saw declines at -1.7 percent and -1.3 percent, 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 percent, with value-added per hour reaching RM42.8.
Labour productivity per employment maintained positive momentum, rising by 2.4 percent to a value-added per employment of RM99,137 per person, compared to RM96,780 per person in 2023.