Chia, F C; Skitmore, M; Runeson, G and Bridge, A (2012) An analysis of construction productivity in Malaysia. Construction Management and Economics, 30(12), pp. 1055-1069. ISSN 1466433X
Abstract
The construction industry is an industry of major strategic importance. Its level of productivity has a significant effect on national economic growth. Productivity indicators are examined. The indicators consist of labour productivity, capital productivity, labour competitiveness, capital intensity and added value content of data, which are obtained from the published census/biannual surveys of the construction industry between the years 1999 and 2011 from the Department of Statistics of Malaysia. The results indicated that there is an improvement in the labour productivity, but the value-added content is declining. The civil engineering and special trades subsectors are more productive than the residential and non-residential subsectors in terms of labour productivity because machine-for-labour substitution is a more important process in those subsectors. The capital-intensive characteristics of civil engineering and special trade works enable these subsectors to achieve higher added value per labour cost but not the capital productivity. The added value per labour cost is lower in larger organizations despite higher capital productivity. However, the capital intensity is lower and unit labour cost is higher in the larger organizations.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction industry; gross output; Malaysia; productivity; value added |
| Index terms: | labour productivity, competitiveness, labour cost, construction productivity, construction industry, statistics, economic growth, added value, Malaysia, productivity, survey |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, mathematical modelling, economic analysis, operations management, Geography, management, economic development, industry analysis, cost management, market analysis |
| Topics: | Project Management, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Sustainability, Procurement, Site Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
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