KUCHING: Despite slower economic momentum in the first quarter of this year, 19,000 jobs were still created nationwide.
However, the number of jobs created decreased by 4,000 from 23,000 in the same quarter of the previous year.
The new jobs are created mostly in the first two months of this year, according to a statement issued by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) strategic communication and international division yesterday.
The statistics were based on the DOSM’s quarterly employment survey conducted on formal private sector establishments.
DOSM chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in terms of skilled category, 48.3 percent was skilled jobs while another 45.7 percent was in semi-skilled category.
From the viewpoint of skill category, he said the number of skilled jobs registered 2.1 million jobs with filled jobs making up 98.0 percent while vacancies rate was 2.0 percent.
In the meantime, there were 5.3 million semi-skilled jobs whereby the rate of filled jobs was 98.4 per cent while the vacancies rate was 1.6 percent.
A total of 1.1 million jobs were in low-skilled category, with a rate of 96.8 percent filled jobs and 3.2 percent of vacancies rate.
Explaining the labour demand by the economic sector, Mohd Uzir said, “Services sector which was the largest contributor of Malaysia’s economy demanded 51.9 per cent (4.4 million) of total jobs.”
Jobs in this sector were largely in wholesale and retail trade (34.9 percent) and finance, insurance, real estate and business services (21.1 percent).
These two subsectors combined made up more than half of the jobs in the services sector. The rate of filled jobs for this sector increased 0.1 percentage point to 99.3 percent, while the rate of vacancies was 0.7 percent.
Manufacturing sector accounted for 26.3 percent with 2.3 million jobs.
The highest number of jobs in this sector was concentrated in the electrical, electronic and optical products subsector with a share of 26.2 percent.
This was followed by petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (18.4 percent) and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (15.5 percent).
The rate of filled jobs for this sector went up by 0.8 percentage points to 96.0 percent while the rate of vacancies was 4.0 percent.
The number of jobs in construction sector was 1.3 million, representing 15.2 percent of jobs.
The rate of filled jobs was 98.6 percent while the rate of vacancies was 1.4 percent.
On the other hand, jobs in agriculture, and mining and quarrying comprised 5.6 percent (483,000) and 0.9 percent (80,000) respectively.
The rate of filled jobs of mining and quarrying sector was the highest compared to the other sectors at 99.6 percent while for agriculture sector was the lowest at 94.5 percent.
Inversely, the vacancies rate for mining and quarrying sector was the lowest at 0.4 percent as opposed to agriculture with 5.5 percent.
As a whole, Mohd Uzir said the first quarter of this year observed a softer labour demand as the Covid-19 pandemic spread and the government reacted to contain it.
This unprecedented event put workers at risk of pay cut while job seekers are expected to face most challenging times in securing employment as the labour demand shrunk.
It is foreseen that Malaysia’s labour market will soften further in the second quarter of this year due to impact of the extended phases of MCOs until the May 3, followed by conditional MCO until June 9.
On top of that, slower global demand will give more pressure to the labour market which will lessen labour demand particularly in the international trade and tourism-related industries.
In this regard, quick adjustment to the labour market disequilibrium is essential to increase demand for jobs and consequently reduce unemployment.
The economic stimulus measures implemented by the government are opportune to ease the burdens and facilitate swift recovery of businesses.
Subsequently, Mohd Uzir hoped that this would cushion the negative impact on the Malaysia’s labour market as the industry create more jobs opportunity appropriate with this new normal.
