32,100 new jobs were created in Malaysia in Q1 2024, a 1.3% growth y-o-y

A total of 8.94mn jobs were recorded in the quarter.

In the first quarter of 2024, Malaysia's economic sector experienced a jobs expansion of 1.5% from the same period last year, recording 8.94mn jobs (Q1 2023: 8.81mn). Of this, there were 8.75mn filled jobs with a rate of 97.9%, up 0.1 percentage points from last year (Q1 2023: 8.61mn).

On the other hand, the vacancy rate was recorded at 2.1% following a decline of 1,000 year-on-year (y-o-y) (Q1 2023: 192,600), marking 191,900 vacancies. Besides that, a total of 32,100 new jobs were created this quarter, up from 31,710 created in Q1 2023..

By skill, all indicators in labour demand were concentrated in the semi-skilled category, accounting for more than half of the total shares. This was then followed by the skilled and low-skilled categories.

Skilled category

• The skilled category registered 2.24mn jobs, a growth of 2% y-o-y (+44,000) compared to Q1 2023 (2.20mn).
• The rate of filled jobs stayed notably high at 97.9%, or 2.19mn jobs.
• There were 47,800 vacancies, or equivalent to a 2.1% vacancy rate.
• The number of jobs created for this quarter grew by 2.8% y-o-y, totalling 8,900 jobs (Q1 2023: 8,600).

Semi-skilled category

• This category contributed the highest share of jobs across all categories with 62.5% (5.59mn).
• The rate of filled jobs was 98.1%, registering 5.48mn jobs.
• The vacancy rate was 1.9% (107,500).
• On the contrary, the number of jobs created declined by 1.6% to 19,900 in Q1 2024 (Q1 2023: 20,200).

Low-skilled category

• There was a decline of 0.5% in the number of jobs, to record 1.11mn jobs in the quarter (Q1 2023: 1.12mn).
• There were 1.07mn jobs were filled, with a rate of 96.7%.
• Job vacancies stood at 36,600 with a vacancy rate of 3.3%.
• 3,400 new jobs were created for low-skilled category, which was 10.5% of total jobs created.

Labour demand by economic activity

The services sector contributed the largest share of jobs at 51.8%, totalling 4.64mn. This was followed by manufacturing with 27.5%(2.46mn). Of the remaining: 

• The construction sector accounted for 14.2% (1.27mn) of jobs respectively.
• Meanwhile, the agriculture accounted for 5.6% (499,400).
• Finally, the mining & quarrying sector held the lowest proportion of jobs at 0.9%, or equivalent to 80,500 jobs.

The services sector comprised more than half of the filled jobs, accounting for 52.7% (4.61mn jobs), followed by the manufacturing sector at 26.9%, totalling 2.35mn jobs.

On the other hand, the manufacturing sector posted the largest proportion of job vacancies, comprising 56.7% (108,800).

Lastly, looking at jobs created, the services sector recorded 49.5% (15,900), while the manufacturing came in second with 33.3% (10,700), followed by construction at 11.9% (3,800).

Lead image / Department of Statistics Malaysia