KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — The sales value of the manufacturing sector in March this year posted a drop of 25.5 per cent, or RM12.5 billion year-on-year, to RM36.6 billion.
The sales value in February was revised to -22.9 per cent, the Department of Statistics said in a statement today.
It said however, the sales value increased RM2.2 billion or 6.3 per cent month-on-month as compared to the RM34.4 million reported in February.
The department said the decline in the sales value during the current month as compared with the corresponding month of the previous year, was the result of the drop of the sales value of 80 industries (69.0 per cent), out of 116 covered in the survey.
“The five major industries whose sales value decreased significantly were the manufacture of refined petroleum products (36.6 per cent),computer and computer peripherals (41.3 per cent), manufacture of other basic industrial chemicals except fertilisers and nitrogen compounds (49.0 percent), basic iron and steel products (41.9 per cent) and electronic valves and tubes as well as printed circuit boards (27.7 per cent),” it said.
The department said total employees engaged in the manufacturing sector in March was 951,848, a decrease of 71,440 persons or 7.0 per cent compared to a year ago.
Month-on-month, the number of workers employed also decreased to 16,768 persons or 1.7 per cent as compared to 968,616 persons in February.
The department said salaries and wages paid in March decreased 8.4 per cent or RM168.2 million year-on-year to register RM1.840 billion.
The total amount paid in March also decreased compared to the previous month.
It said productivity or average sales value per employee in March went down by 22.3 per cent year-on-year to register RM37,252 compared to the RM47,936 in March 2008.
Productivity in March, however, increased 7.5 per cent as compared to the preceding month. — Bernama
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