KUALA LUMPUR (May 15): In the first quarter of 2025, Malaysia’s high-tech manufacturing sector — covering electrical, electronics, and optical products — saw a slight drop in labour demand, from 655,000 to 649,000 jobs.

However, this didn’t ease its ongoing talent shortage.

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), only 94.8% of such jobs were filled, the lowest rate among manufacturing sub-sectors, leaving 5.2% of roles vacant — the highest vacancy rate in the sector.

This was as the number of openings in the manufacturing sub-sector rose to 5,782 in the first quarter, compared with 5,746 openings in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Despite fewer total jobs, the sector is still expanding and added 1,548 new positions, the most of any manufacturing sub-sector. This was up from the 1,386 positions created in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Jobs created refer to new positions that didn’t exist before. These include new roles, positions added for employee promotions, and increases in existing job numbers.

The electrical, electronic and optical products sub-sector played a crucial role in propelling overall labour demand’s expansion for the manufacturing sector.

In the first quarter of 2025 (1Q2025), the manufacturing sector had 2.494 million jobs, up 1.5% (37,000 jobs) from 2.456 million in 1Q2024. Of these, 95.5% (2.382 million) were filled, and 4.5% (111,200) were vacant. There were 12,100 new jobs created in this sector.

The growth of the manufacturing sector supports the New Industrial Master Plan 2030, which aims to grow jobs and improve workforce skills, chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in the DOSM statement.