Our shift to an economy based on high productivity and knowledge creation has resulted in shortages in the labour market. Since 2015, the government has come up with an annual critical occupations list (COL), which basically registers jobs that employers want to fill but have difficulty filling. These are jobs that are middle or high-skilled, sought-after and strategic. The COL is designed to be a tool to help policymakers make decisions, including on education and training programmes, says the World Bank, in its report “Monitoring occupational shortages – Lessons from Malaysia’s critical occupations list”. Here is the 2018/19 list, ...

Malaysia’s critical Occupations List

Although mobile commerce is booming globally, Malaysians still prefer to shop online using desktops. Only one out of three transactions last year was made with the use of a mobile device, according to Picodi.com. Here are some interesting figures on how Malaysians shop online, based on the global e-commerce platform’s internal data last year.

Online shopping habits of Malaysians

Many employees are threatened by digitalisation, concerned that automation will make them redundant. However, 89% of Malaysian employees surveyed by Randstad say digital technology provides them with new opportunities. But are they equipped with the right skillsets to take on the fourth industrial revolution?

Malaysians need to upskill to face digitalisation 

Here is some interesting data on salary-related matters gleaned from a survey by global recruitment firm Hays of over 3,000 employers, representing some six million employees, across  five markets  – Malaysia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Japan – in 4Q2018.

Salary Trends In Asia

Vietnam has often been referred to as Asean’s rising economic star and a key competitor for Malaysia to look out for. But has the socialist republic’s economic numbers really overtaken the region’s? The data below shows how five oft-compared Asean economies have performed and changed in recent years.

Is Vietnam overtaking Malaysia?

For more than 25 years, China took in 45% of the world’s total waste. Things took a turn last year when the country decided to stop importing major plastic waste due to local environmental concerns, and overnight turned Malaysia into the world’s largest importer of plastic waste.