KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's labor productivity posted a positive annual growth of 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 with total hours worked increased 2.3 percent year on year to 9.4 billion hours, official data showed Thursday.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that with the propel of stable economic and labor market growth, labor productivity measured as value added per hour worked in the fourth quarter of 2023 has improved to 43.5 ringgit (9.08 U.S. dollar) per hour, from 42.2 ringgit per hour in the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, labor productivity as expressed by value added per employment maintained its positive growth, rising to 25,080 ringgit per person from 24,470 ringgit per person.
As for the full year, the labor productivity per hour worked grew 0.2 percent to 41.9 ringgit per hour from 41.8 ringgit per hour in 2022.
Labor productivity per employment in 2023 also demonstrated a positive momentum at 0.9 percent to record value added per employment of 96,692 ringgit per person, as compared to 95,858 ringgit per person in 2022.
"Building a strong workforce for the future is the key factor for the enhancement of labor productivity. 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," the DOSM said. (1 ringgit equals 0.21 U.S. dollar) ■
