KUALA LUMPUR (July 16): Retrenchments in Malaysia unexpectedly hit high-skilled workers the most in recent years, according to Maybank Investment Bank.
While intuition suggests that lower-skilled labourers would be more vulnerable, latest available data showed that high-skilled workers on average accounted for over half of retrenchments in 2021-2025 and remained the largest affected employees for the first five months of 2026, the research house said.
One possible explanation, Maybank Investment said, is the tendency for high-skilled workers to take up voluntary separation schemes, mutual separation schemes and early retirement packages.
High-skilled workers comprise managers, professionals and technicians and associate professionals, according to the Malaysia Standard Classification of Occupations used by the Department of Statistics Malaysia to standardise and categorise jobs.
Semi-skilled workers include clerical support workers, service and sales workers, skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers, craft and related trade workers, and plant and machine operators while low-skilled workers are classified as those in “elementary occupations”.
Malaysian employers laid off nearly 39,000 workers between January and May, a 36% increase when compared to the same period a year earlier, according to Social Security Organisation’s data.
In terms of sectors, manufacturing and services took the brunt of the retrenchments with business downsizing and closures cited as the main reasons.
Still, overall jobs data indicate full employment in the economy thanks to the direct impact of economic recovery from the pandemic and the subsequent sustained growth, Maybank Investment said.
Retrenched workers are being absorbed via higher numbers of job placements, the research house said, noting that there were 1.5 job placements for every worker retrenched in January-May.
Further, the rise of informal sector jobs such as micro businesses, gig economy, and freelancing also helped to keep the retrenched workers employed, the research house added.