All work and no play boosted labour productivity by 11% in 2010

This following two years of decline and amidst private sector total wages climbing 5.5%.

The Ministry of Manpower noted:

The strong economy and the tightening labour market raised workers’ wages in 2010. Total wages (comprising basic wages and bonuses) in the private sector grew by 5.5%, after contracting by 0.4% in 2009. The wage gain was comparable to pre-recession period in 2007 (5.9%), although it remained lower than that experienced during the economic expansion in 2000 (6.6%).

The increase in total wages in 2010 resulted from a basic wage gain of 3.9% and an increase of 9.0% in bonus (also known as annual variable component) payout from 1.99 months in 2009 to 2.17 months in 2010. Overall, the annual variable component formed 15.3% of total wages in 2010, up from 14.2% in 2009 but still lower than the 16.1% in 2008 and 16.4% in 2007.

Taking into account inflation, real total wages rose by 2.7% in 2010, after declining by 1.0% in 2009. Similarly, real basic wages increased by 1.1%, higher than the 0.7% growth in 2009. Driven by the robust economic growth, labour productivity increased significantly by 11% in 2010, after two years of decline (2009: -3.4%, 2008: -7.5%).

Annualised over the three years from 2007 to 2010, both labour productivity and real total wages declined by 0.4% p.a. and 0.3% p.a. respectively, weighed down by the weak performance in productivity and real wages in 2008 and 2009. However, over the longer period of eight years since the recovery from the previous downturn, productivity grew by 2.1% p.a. while real total wages rose by 1.6% p.a.

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