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The data covers all economic sectors — namely, Malaysia's agriculture, mining & quarrying, manufacturing, construction and services sectors.
Malaysia's Department of Statistics has released its Annual Economic Statistics (AES) 2022, Employment and Salaries & Wages Statistics report.
Published on 14 Dec 2023, the study presents statistics of number of persons engaged and salaries & wages for the reference year of 2021. It covers all economic sectors — namely, Malaysia's agriculture, mining & quarrying, manufacturing, construction and services sectors.
Overall, the total number of persons engaged in the year amounted to 9,569,000. By gender, male workers constituted 67.2% (6,301,000 persons), while female workers accounted for 34.1% (3,267,000 persons).
From the perspective of economic activities, the services sector had the number of persons engaged in 2021 at 57.7% (5,517,000 persons), followed by:
- the manufacturing sector with 24.1% (2,303,000 persons),
- the construction sector with 12.4% (1,190,000 persons),
- the agriculture sector with 5.2% (496,700 persons),
- the mining & quarrying sector with 0.6% (61,000 persons)
By geographical region, Selangor recorded the highest number of persons engaged at 2,572,000 persons (26.9%). This was followed by Wilayah Persekutuan (1,680,000 persons; 17.6%) and Johor (1,181,000 persons; 12.3%).
Looking at compensation, the total salaries & wages paid amounted to RM318.6bn in 2021 — an increase of RM35.4bn from 2017 (RM283.2bn). As the largest contributor to the economy, the services sector accounted for 56.6%, or RM180.4bn, of the total salaries & wages. This was followed by the manufacturing and construction sectors at RM89.5bn and RM33.4bn, respectively.
By location, Selangor recorded the highest salaries & wages which accounted 30.6% (RM97.5bn) to overall salaries in 2021, while Wilayah Persekutuan recorded 22.6% (RM71.9bn) and Johor recorded 10.9% (RM34.7bn).
On the other end of the spectrum, Perlis recorded the smallest salaries & wages amount payout of RM0.8bn (0.2%).
Lead image / Department of Statistics Malaysia
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