Total number of jobs in Malaysia's economic sector grew by 73,600 in Q4 '21

Additionally, there were 21,000 jobs created in this quarter, an increase from the 17,000 in Q4 2020.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, Malaysia experienced a growth of 73,600 in the total number of jobs in the economic sector, recording a total of 8.531mn. For year-on-year comparison, the fourth quarter of 2020 recorded a total of 8.457mn jobs in the economic sector. 

Malaysia's Department of Statistics further observed that there were 8.347mn filled jobs, with a filled-jobs rate of 97.8%. The term 'filled jobs', it noted, refers to paid employees, both full-time and part-time, and excludes the likes of individual proprietors and business partners.

Meanwhile, the job vacancies rate stood at 2.2% in the quarter, amounting to a total of 184,000 job vacancies (Q4 2020: 176,000).

Additionally, there were 21,000 jobs created in this quarter, an increase from the 17,000 recorded in Q4 2020. 

Labour demand by skill

Looking further into labour demand by skill, the number of jobs in the semi-skilled category in Q4 2021 accounted for 5.312mn jobs, with a share of 62.3%. This was followed by the skilled jobs category, ranking second with 24.7% and recording a total of 2.110mn jobs. Lastly, the low-skilled category comprised 13% of jobs (1.109mn jobs).

For the skilled category, the rate of filled jobs was 98% — equivalent to 2.067mn — while the rate of job vacancies was 2%, accounting for 42,900 jobs. A total of 6,000 jobs were created in this category in Q4.

Over in the semi-skilled category, the total number of filled jobs stood at 5.209mn, with a rate of 98.1%, whereas 103,000 jobs were vacant, recording a rate of 1.9%. In total, this category saw 13,400 jobs created in the quarter.

Coming to the low-skilled category — filled jobs encompassed 96.6% of low-skilled jobs in Q4 2021, amounting to 1.071mn filled jobs. At the same time, job vacancies were recorded at 38,000, which was a vacancy rate of 3.4%. Overall, 1,500 jobs were created in this category in Q4 last year.

Labour demand by economic activity

Analysing the labour demand by economic activity, the largest composition of jobs and filled jobs was in the services sector with a share of 51.7% (4.413mn) and 52.5% (4.386mn) respectively. At the same time, jobs in the manufacturing sector comprised 27.2% (2.321mn) of jobs, while filled jobs accounted for 26.6%, or 2.218mn. 

In terms of jobs created, the services sector noted 8,800 jobs created (41.9%). This was followed by the manufacturing sector, with a share of 38.3% (8,000), and construction at 13.6% (2,800).

Image / DOSM

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