Malaysia's labour force participation rate reached a historic high in 2023

Overall, the number of jobs in the economic sector increased by 2.1% in Q4, registering a total of 8.94mn jobs.

Malaysia's economy expanded by 3% in the fourth quarter of 2023, culminating in the labour force participation rate reaching a historic high in the same year.

Overall, the number of jobs in the economic sector increased by 2.1% in Q4, registering a total of 8.94mn jobs. This growth follows the total of 31,100 jobs created the same quarter, as identified in the Employment Statistics report. 

Diving deeper into the statistics for the quarter:

• The rate of filled jobs increased by 0.1p.p to reach 97.9% with 8.74mn filled jobs (Q4 2022: 8.56mn). 
• The unemployment rate also declined to the pre-pandemic level of 3.3%. 
• A total of 190,200 job vacancies with a rate of 2.1% were available, decreasing by 2,200 as compared to Q4 2022 (192,400).
• There were a total of 31,100 jobs created in this quarter (Q4 2022: 30,900).

Breakdown of skills composition 

By skills category, a majority of jobs was in the semi-skilled category at 62.5%, or 5.59mn jobs. This was followed by:

• skilled (25.1%; 2.24mn)
• low-skilled (12.4%; 1.11mn).

For a further breakdown, the skilled jobs increased by 0.6% to record 2.24mn jobs, compared to the same quarter from the previous year (Q3 2023: 2.22mn). Subsequently, the filled jobs' rate remained high at 97.8% (equivalent to 2.19mn jobs). While there was a 2.2% job vacancy rate (48,100 vacancies), the number of jobs created for this quarter decreased by 0.7% to record 8,600 jobs compared to the same quarter of the preceding year (Q4 2022: 8,700).

In the semi-skilled category, the rate of filled jobs was 98.1%, or equivalent to 5.48mn jobs. The remaining 1.9% (105,600) comprised of job vacancies. Annually, the number of jobs created recorded a decline, from 19,500 (Q4 2022) to 19,300 in Q4 2023.

Lastly, the number of jobs in the low-skilled category decreased by 0.4% , posting 1.11mn jobs. For a more accurate comparison, the same quarter last year recorded 1.12mn. Out of the total 1.1mn, there were 1.08mn filled jobs with a rate of 96.7%. The remaining 3.3% constituted 36,500 job vacancies. In addition, 3,100 low-skilled jobs were created, accounting for 10% of all jobs created.

Breakdown of economic activity

By economic activity, the composition of jobs was as follows:

• Services sector (51.8% or 4.63mn)
• Manufacturing sector (27.6% or 2.47mn)
• Construction sector (14.2% or 1.26mn)
• Agriculture sector (5.5% or 495,500 )
• Mining and quarrying sector (0.9% or 80,600)

Particularly, the services sector accounted for over half of the filled jobs, with a share of 52.6%, equivalent to 4.60mn jobs, followed by manufacturing with a contribution of 27% to record 2.36mn jobs.

However, the manufacturing sector also had the biggest share of job vacancies at 56.8% (108,000). This was followed by agriculture at 16.3% (31,100 ) and construction at 13.5% (25,500).

In terms of jobs created, the services sector recorded 48.7% (15,100), while manufacturing came in second with 34% (10,500), followed by construction at 12% (3,700).

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Lead image / Department of Statistics Malaysia