January was the first month since mid 2015 to see a mild increase in the number of industrial workers which had been declining for almost nine years, since November 2007.
The negative trend was interrupted only in July and August 2016, when the number of industrial workers stagnated on the year.
The number of workers decreased in all the other months of 2016, and the decrease ranged from -0.2% in February to -0.6% in November.
January 2017 also saw an end to a four-month-long monthly decline in the number of industrial workers.
In the processing industry, which employs more than 91% of all industrial workers, the number of workers was 0.6% up from January 2016 and labour productivity was 5.5% higher.