South Korea's labor productivity in the manufacturing sector outpaced that of Japan in the second half of 2009, a state-supported agency said on Sunday.
The Korea Productivity Center (KPC) said local labor productivity rebounded into positive territory in the third quarter of last year and posted 18.4 percent on-year gains in the October-December period.
"South Korea, which gained experience in the 1997-1998 financial crisis, had developed the necessary knowhow to respond more quickly to emergency situations compared to Japan," a KPC official said.
This is in contrast to negative growth tallied for Japan in the third quarter and a gain of just 1.3 percent in the last three months of 2009.
The KPC said that South Korean gains were achieved by a sharp rise in productivity amid a decrease in workers, while Japan posted growth because the drop in its manufacturing sector workforce exceeded the dip in productivity.
Most industrialized countries around the world posted negative economic growth last year as the financial crisis triggered by problems in the United States in late 2008, hurt trade, business investments and consumption. South Korea managed to pull off 0.2 percent annual growth thanks mainly to solid gains in exports.
The latest findings, meanwhile, showed productivity gains by South Korea and Japan were mainly fueled by gains in electronic parts. Both countries enjoy global competitiveness in the electronics parts businesses, which include components and industrial materials.
