PH labor productivity rose in ’13

Labor productivity across 12 major industries in the Philippines hit a four-year high at 6.3 percent in 2013, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Data from the PSA showed that productivity improvement was best last year since growth returned to positive territory at 4.7 percent from negative 1.7 percent during the height of the global financial crisis in 2009.

Productivity is defined as the ratio of gross value-added to total industry employment, expressed in prices of year 2000.

In peso terms, workers accounted for an average of P178,383 in gross value added in 2013. During the crisis, productivity was pegged at P151,086.

Last year, the industry sector performed the best, with productivity growing by 6.2 percent to P374,158.

Productivity of workers in the services sector increased by 4.5 percent to P189,883.

As for workers in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector, productivity improved by 4 percent to P60,094.

All figures are based on information from the periodic Labor Force Survey of the PSA-National Statistics Office and the country’s national accounts as recorded by the PSA-National Statistical Coordination Board.

The industries covered include agriculture and forestry; fishing; mining and quarrying; manufacturing, electricity, gas and water supply; construction; wholesale and retail trade; transportation, storage and communications; financial services; real estate; public administration and defense, and “other services.”

According to the PSA-Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, labor productivity can be used to assess the likelihood of the country’s economic environment to create and sustain “decent employment opportunities with fair equitable remuneration.”

An increase in labor productivity often influences the social and economic environment positively which, in turn, leads to poverty reduction, it added. Without productivity growth, improvements in work conditions are less likely to occur.