KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 22): Labour productivity in the country grew 3.6% year-on-year to RM85,031 in the fourth quarter of 2017 (4Q17) after rising 4.1% (RM82,433) in the preceding quarter, said Department of Statistics Malaysia, adding that the economy expanded 5.9% while employment rose 2.2% at that time.

The agriculture sector rose 4.8% to RM55,490 in labour productivity while the value added of the sector climbed 10.7% compared to 4.1% in 3Q17 with employment for the sector rebounding 5.6% from negative 1.1% in the preceding quarter.

Labour productivity for the mining and quarrying sector also turned around to grow at 4.7% to RM1.24 billion from a negative growth of 8.5% or RM999,423 in the previous quarter, the department said in a statement today.

"Value added of this sector recorded a marginal decrease of 0.5% (+3.1% in 3Q17) while employment declined at a faster rate of 5% (+12.6% in 3Q17)," it added.

The manufacturing sector's labour productivity went up 3.6% to RM115,434 compared to RM112,205 in 3Q17. In 4Q17, value added rose 5.4% versus 7% in 3Q17, and employment grew slightly by 1.8% from 1.7% in the previous quarter.

"Construction sector recorded labour productivity growth of 1.4% (4.8% in 3Q17) at RM39,967 as opposed to RM44,011 in the preceding month, and value added growth at 5.8% (6.1% in 3Q17) while employment rose 4.3% compared to 1.2% in 3Q17," the department showed.

The services sector saw labour productivity gain 4.7% with a value of RM76,794 compared to RM73,345 in 3Q17 while value added of this sector was 6.2% against 6.5% in the previous quarter as employment came in at 1.5%.

For the year 2017, annual growth for labour productivity was up 3.6% with a value of RM81,039 from 3.5% or RM78,244 last year.

"This was in line with the expansion of value added at 5.9% versus 4.2% in 2016 as employment increased 2.2% (2016: 0.7%)," it said.