PETALING JAYA: The number of jobs in Malaysia’s economic sector were lower by 0.4% to 8.35 million in the second quarter of 2021 (Q2’21), compared with 8.38 million jobs in the same quarter of 2020, according to the employment survey conducted on registered businesses in the private sector by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Sri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in comparison with the previous quarter, total jobs decreased further by 0.9% indicating uneven recovery momentum in labour demand following the impact of prolonged health crisis and containment measures imposed since March 2020.
“With the rise of Covid-19 daily cases during this quarter, stringent containment measures were implemented since the middle of May which limited business operating hours and permitted only essential services to operate,“ he said in a statement issued on Thursday.
Filled jobs decreased 0.5% year-on-year to 8.17 million jobs in Q2’21 from 8.21 million previously.
The number of job vacancies this quarter in the economic sector was 178,000, up by 5% from 169,500 due to low base number recorded in Q2’20. The number of job vacancies remained lower than an average of 200,000 job vacancies recorded during the pre-crisis period. The rates of filled jobs and job vacancies during the quarter remained at 97.9% and 2.1%, respectively.
He said all sectors indicated a downward trend except for the manufacturing sector which posted an increase of 0.9% or 2.16 million jobs.
More than half of filled jobs were concentrated in the services sector (52.4%), followed by manufacturing (26.4%) and construction (14.9%). The remaining of 6.3% were in agriculture and mining & quarrying sectors.
From the viewpoint of skill category, filled jobs for both semi-skilled (-0.4%) and low-skilled (-2.0%) occupation categories declined while skilled jobs (0.1%) increased marginally as compared to Q2’20.
In terms of composition by skill category, more than half was semi-skilled category with a share of 62.4% (5.1 million) whereas skilled category made up 24.7% (2 million),” he said.
Job vacancies were mostly in the manufacturing sector recording 100,100 job vacancies (56.2%), largely in electrical, electronic and optical products sub-sector (316,000). Followed by petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (188,000).
As for agriculture, there were 292,000 job vacancies (16.4%), mostly in crops and livestock sub-sector. Services sector recorded 276,000 job vacancies (15.5%) particularly in wholesale and retail trade activity. More than half of job vacancies in Q2’21 were semi-skilled category comprising 55% or equivalent to 980,000 job vacancies, followed by skilled category at 24% (428,000) and 21% in low-skilled category (373,000).
“The number of jobs created increased by 18.3% recording 162,000 jobs compared to the same quarter at 137,000 jobs in the previous year. For the record, the number of jobs created in Q2’20 was the lowest registered since the series began in 2015.
“By skill category, jobs were largely created for semi-skilled category which accounted for 60.8% or 9,800 while skilled category comprised of 30.8% (50,000).
“As for the distribution by economic sector, the largest composition of jobs created was in the manufacturing sector which encompassed 44.6% or 72,000 jobs and followed by services sector with a share of 33.6% (54,000 jobs). The remaining jobs created were in Construction (16.9%), Agriculture (4.3%) and Mining & Quarrying (0.6%),” Mohd Uzir said.
“Overall labour demand in economic sector in this quarter remained on a declining trend as business operations had yet to be fully resumed in normalcy following the current public health crisis situation. Nevertheless, the ongoing economic stimulus packages and initiatives implemented by the government may ease the burden of businesses and subsequently enable employment to be retained in the economy.
“In addition, the positive development of the vaccination rate as targeted in the National Recovery Plan, will enable the businesses to gain more promising impact and lift up the recovery momentum of labour demand in Malaysia,” he added.
Source: https://www.thesundaily.my/business/number-of-jobs-in-malaysia-s-economic-sector-slips-04-to-835-million-in-q2-NX8198348