Illustrative photo (Photo:theedgemarkets.com)Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysia posted a 2.7% increase inthe total number of jobs in the first quarter of this year to 8.81 million jobscompared to 8.57 million jobs in the same period last year, according to theDepartment of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin on May 11 said theupward trend is an indication of the country’s gradual economic recovery,supported by various government initiatives like job placement programmes, wagesubsidies, and tax incentives.
“For the record, the total number of jobs in the first quarterthis year is the highest quarterly increase since 2018,” he said in a statementon the Employment Statistics, First Quarter 2023.
A similar trend could be seen in the number of filled jobs, which rose by 2.7%, recording 8.91 million in 1Q2023 compared to 8.39 million in 1Q2022, while job vacancies increased by 4.5% to 192,600 this quarter, he said.
Elaborating on jobs filled this quarter, Mohd Uzir said the manufacturing sector recorded the highest growth at 3.8% (2.32 million), followed by mining and quarrying (3.4%) and agriculture (2.9%).
In terms of composition, a total of 4.53 million jobs werefilled (52.6%) focused on the services sector, followed by manufacturing (2.32million; 27%) and construction (1.23 million; 14.3%), with the semi-skilledcategory recording 5.39 million jobs, followed by the skilled category (2.15million jobs) and low-skilled (1.08 million jobs).
Despite the increase in the number of jobs, the vacancy ratealso increased by 4.5% to 192,600, mainly in the manufacturing sector whichaccounted for 55.9% of the vacancies, followed by agriculture (16, 5%) andservices (15.3%).
Mohd said that although economic growth is predicted to losemomentum this year because of a global recession, business activities inMalaysia continue to grow, creating more job opportunities, therebystrengthening the labour market.
He also said the labour market position is expected to remainstable and expand in the coming months, supported by the current development ofeconomic activities in Malaysia./.
