More Productive
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy and the Korea Productivity Center announced on May 7 that Korea’s labor productivity index, covering every domestic industrial sector, increased 1.5 percent from a year earlier to 101.9 last year. The reference point is 100 during the year 2010.
The index showed 2.8 percent growth in 2013 as well. The constant growth can be attributed to a 4.6 percent increase in capital expenditures, 15.3 percent increase in the number of orders received by machinery manufacturers, and 1.6 percent increase in consumption that were recorded last year. Meanwhile, the labor input index declined by 0.4 percent due to a decrease in working hours.
The labor productivity index of the service industry rose 2.7 percent year-on-year based on an increase in production and decrease in labor input. However, that of the construction sector posted a 1.7 percent decline due for the opposite reason. The index of the manufacturing sector was 102.4, showing little change from the previous year.
In the meantime, the overall average of the added value-based labor productivity index added up to 107.8 last year, with a 3.8 percent year-on-year growth. Those of the construction, manufacturing, and service industries went up by 0.6 percent, 4.0 percent, and 3.5 percent, respectively.