Of the 159,148 job vacancies advertised online in Malaysia, approximately 20% were in wholesale & retail trade

Findings revealed that most of the employers in Malaysia require 'professional' workers (44.9%). This is followed by 'technicians and associate professionals' (17.7%), and 'managers' (11.3%).

Using a month-on-month metric for Q1 2022, the number of job vacancies advertised online in Malaysia was the highest in February 2022 with 67,172, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia's (DOSM) Job Market Insights and Job Profile report released on 31 May 2022 (Tuesday). For January and March 2022, there were respectively 48,924 and 43,052 job vacancies advertised online.

Comparing against past statistics, it was observed in the report that in Q1 2020, there was a total of 49,372 job vacancies advertised online. Meanwhile, in Q1 2021, the total number of job vacancies increased to 90,218. This figure went up to 159,148 in Q1 2022. That said, the number of job vacancies advertised online for Q1 2022 is not as high as the number in Q3 (192,480) and Q4 2021 (190,436). Between Q1 2022 and Q4 2021, there was a drop by 16.4%, according to the analysts at DOSM.

Diving deeper into the numbers, most of the employers in Malaysia require 'professional' workers (44.9%). This is followed by 'technicians and associate professionals' (17.7%), and 'managers' (11.3%). Demand from the remaining employers was spread across demographics such as 'clerical support' workers, 'service and sales' workers, 'craft and related trades' workers, and 'plant and machine-operators and assemblers'. 

With regard to the sectors in Malaysia, analysts found that the highest number of job vacancies to be in wholesale & retail trade with 31,671. It is followed by manufacturing (29,549), professional, scientific & technical (15,040), and financial & insurance (10,076).

For Q1 2022, DOSM analysts also discovered the five most popular job vacancies in fields like technical and vocational education & training (TVET), critical occupation list (COL), and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Based on the findings, it is as follows:

• For STEM
  1. Technicians (2,368)
  2. Graphic designers (1,257)
  3. Software engineers (1,192)
  4. Project managers (962)
  5. Site supervisors (755)
     
     
• For COL
  1. Advertising & marketing professionals (12,647)
  2. Managing directors and chief executives (6,834)
  3. Accountants and auditors (6,075)
  4. Software developers (4,710)
  5. Stationary plant and machine operators (4,166)
     
     
• For TVET
  1. Advertising & marketing professionals (12,647)
  2. Administrative associate professionals (7,256)
  3. Software developers (4,710)
  4. General office clerks (4,169)
  5. Industrial and production technicians (4,018)

While the aforementioned statistics offer an outlook of the job market in Malaysia, report findings reiterated a disclaimer that it "must be interpreted with caution due to the data limitation". This is because the report does not "represent the whole population of job vacancies in Malaysia", and that it "only collected data from four popular recruitment websites".

Read also: Malaysia's labour force reaches 16.25mn in Q1 2022: DOSM Report

Image / DOSM

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