The most and least productive sectors in Singapore

Good news for businesses in Singapore - the country's overall labour productivity is on the rise.

According to the Economic Survey of Singapore Second Quarter 2016 released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) today, Singapore's overall labour productivity (measured by value added per worker) improved by 0.7% in Q2 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.

The sectors which registered the highest increase in productivity were:

• Manufacturing (4.6%)
• Wholesale and retail trade (2.2%)
• Construction (1.5%)
• Transportation and storage (1.3%)

On the flip side, the sectors with the greatest dips in productivity in Q2 2016 were:

• Business services (-2.7%)
• Information and communications (-2.2%)
• Other services (-1.8%)
• Accommodation and food (-1.4%)

As a whole, outward-oriented sectors were found to have achieved higher productivity growth than domestically oriented sectors.

"Compared to the same period last year, the productivity of outward-oriented sectors grew by 2.0% in the second quarter, while that of domestically-oriented sectors fell by 1.5%," the report stated.

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