Chart of the Day: Singapore's labour productivity tumbled 2.6%

Here are the sectors with the sharpest drops.

According to Ministry of Trade and Industry's Economic Survey of Singapore 2012, overall labour productivity fell by 2.5 per cent in the fourth quarter, extending the decline seen in the past four quarters.

The decline was broad-based, with the manufacturing (-3.1 per cent), construction (-3.5 per cent) and overall services (-1.8 per cent) sectors all experiencing negative growth.

Within the services sector, wholesale and retail trade (-3.9 per cent), other services (-2.1 per cent) and business services (-2.0 per cent) saw the sharpest declines.

Information and communications was the only industry to experience positive productivity growth, at 2.8 per cent.

For the year as a whole, overall labour productivity fell by 2.6 per cent. In 2010 and 2011, labour productivity had increased by 11 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.