PUTRAJAYA (May 11): Malaysia’s labour demand continued its upward trend in the first quarter of 2023 (1Q2023) with total jobs rising 2.7% to 8.81 million, from 8.57 million in the same quarter last year, the Department of Statistics Malaysia reported.

Total jobs increased 233,700 year-on-year (y-o-y), the highest quarterly increase since 2018, said chief statistician Datuk Sri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin in a statement on Thursday (May 11).

According to him, all economic sectors grew this quarter, with the manufacturing sector recording the highest growth at 3.8%, followed by mining and quarrying at 3.4% and agriculture at 2.9%.

“This positive trend was an indication of the country’s gradual economic recovery, bolstered by various government initiatives such as job placement programmes, wage subsidies and tax incentives,” he said.

The positive trend is mirrored in filled jobs, which edged up by 2.7%, recording 8.61 million jobs this quarter (1Q2022: 8.39 million).

Mohd Uzir surmised that “this was likely underpinned by the government’s initiative on easing the foreign workers hiring rules through Foreign Worker Recruitment Relaxation Plan and Illegal Immigrant Recalibration Plan 2.0”.

In terms of composition, filled jobs were concentrated in the services sector, while trailing behind were the manufacturing and construction sectors.

“From the viewpoint of skill category, filled jobs were largely in the semi-skilled category, recording 5.39 million jobs or equivalent to 62.6%, followed by the skilled category with 2.15 million jobs (24.9%) and low-skilled [with] 1.08 million jobs (12.5%)," he added.

Although the number of filled jobs have increased, job vacancies have also risen by 4.5% to 192,600, predominantly in the manufacturing sector accounting for 55.9% of vacancies, followed by agriculture (16.5%) and service (15.3%).

The rate of filled jobs stood at 97.8% and job vacancies at 2.2%.

Reflecting Malaysia’s economic recovery, more jobs were recorded to meet the needs of the industry, said Mohd Uzir.

“Across the economic activity, the majority of the jobs created were in the services sector with a share of 50.8% (16,100) mainly in the wholesale and retail trade sub-sector with 8,700 (27.3%). In the meantime, the manufacturing sector created 10,500 new jobs, with a share of 33.2% mostly in the sub-sector of electrical, electronic, and optical products (11.0%; 3,500),” he added.

“Despite the expectation that the economic growth momentum would lose steam this year amid global recessionary risks, business activities in Malaysia have continued to grow, contributing to more job opportunities, hence strengthening Malaysia's labour market.

“Labour market position is also anticipated to remain stable and expanding in the upcoming months led by the current development of economic activity in Malaysia."

The statistics were published in the report of Employment Statistics, First Quarter 2023 based on the Employment Survey conducted on registered businesses in the private sector.