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The services sector made up the largest share of jobs recorded in the quarter, at 51.9%.
Labour demand in Malaysia continued to expand in the second quarter of 2024, in tandem with the growth of 1.5% in number of jobs recorded.
According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, this brings the total number of registered jobs in the quarter to 8.96mn (Q2 2023: 8.83mn).
On top of that, the number of filled jobs edged up to 8.76mn, marking a rate of 97.9% — up 0.1 percentage points (p.p.) from the same quarter last year.
On the other hand, the job vacancy rate dropped to 2.1%, resulting in 191,400 unoccupied jobs compared to 189,800 in Q2 2023. Complementing this, 31,860 new jobs were created in the quarter, up from 31,700 in the same quarter last year.
Labour demand by skill
By skill category, labour demand was primarily driven by the semi-skilled category, making up over half of the total indicators. This was followed by skilled and low-skilled categories across all indicators.
Maintaining its positive growth for the quarter, the skilled category recorded a total of 2.24mn jobs — a 1.7% year-on-year increase of 38,000 compared to 2.20mn jobs in Q2 2023.
- Of these, 2.19mn jobs were filled, translating to the high rate of filled jobs shared above (97.9%).
- In addition, the vacancy rate stood at 2.1%, corresponding to 48,000 vacancies.
- The number of jobs created in this quarter also dipped by 7.3%, resulting in 8,500 jobs compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
The semi-skilled category emerged as the largest contributor for the quarter at 62.5%, corresponding to 5.6mn jobs.
- Of these, the rate of filled jobs recorded was 98.1%, representing 5.49mn jobs
- The vacancy rate was 1.9%, representing 106,800 vacancies.
- Additionally, the number of jobs created rose by 2.2% or equivalent to 20.0 thousand (Q2 2023: 19.6 thousand).
The low skilled category recorded a marginal decrease of 0.1% in the number of jobs, totalling 1.11mn jobs. For comparison, the same quarter in 2023 recorded 1.12mn.
- Of these, 1.08mn jobs were filled, translating to a filled jobs rate of 96.7%.
- There was a total of 36,700 vacancies available, marking a vacancy rate of 3.3%.
- The low-skilled category also saw the creation of 3,300 new jobs, representing 10.4% of total jobs created.
Labour demand by economic sector
The services sector made up the largest share of jobs (51.9%, or 4.65mn jobs). This was followed by manufacturing at 27.5% (2.46mn).
Of the remaining, the construction sector contributed 14.1% (1.27mn), while agriculture sector accounted for 5.6% (501,000). The sector with the lowest representation was mining & quarrying, with 0.9% or 81,000 jobs.
Filled jobs
- The services sector dominated the labour market with 52.8% of the filled jobs, or 4.62mn jobs.
- The manufacturing sector was second with a share of 26.8%, or 2.35mn jobs.
- The construction sector accounted for 14.2% (1.24mn) while agriculture sector, with 5.3% (469,000).
Jobs vacancy
- The manufacturing sector made up 56.6% (108,000) of the total job vacancies recorded.
- This was followed by agriculture at 16.6% (32,000) and construction at 13.6% (26,000).
Jobs created
- The services sector topped the list for jobs created, encompassing 49.8% (16,000) of total jobs created.
- The manufacturing sector recorded 33.9% (11,000), followed by construction at 11.6% (4,000).
Lead image / Department of Statistics Malaysia
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