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Employment in Malaysia increased by 3.2% in Q2 2022

Employment in Malaysia increased by 3.2% in Q2 2022

This growth in employment occurred mainly in manufacturing sector (4.9%, or an increase of 127,400 persons) and services (4.2%, or an increase of 386,800 persons).

Malaysia’s labour productivity, in terms of value added per hour, improved 1.3% on a year-on-year basis in the second quarter of 2022.

When we break this down in terms of labour productivity (per hour) by economic activity, the only sector which posted growth was the services sector. Below is the data by economic activity:

  • Agriculture (Q1 2022: -0.3% vs Q2 2022: -3.5%)
  • Mining & quarrying (Q1 2022: -4.8% vs Q2 2022: -5.1%)
  • Manufacturing (Q1 2022: -0.1% vs Q2 2022: -1.9%)
  • Construction (Q1 2022: -8.2% vs Q2 2022: -5.2%)
  • Services (Q1 2022: 1.2% vs Q2 2022: 4.0%)

Meanwhile, labour productivity per employment for services and manufacturing sectors increased 7.5% and 4% respectively, and construction sector grew 2.9%. On the other hand, mining and quarrying sector continued to post a negative growth of 2.2%, and agriculture sector fell by 1.7%.

All sectors recorded increases in total hours worked (i.e. overall increase in working hours by 7.5%, Q1 2022: 4.6%), and breaking this down by economic activity:

  • manufacturing (11.3%)
  • construction (8.0%)
  • services (7.7%)
  • mining and quarrying (4.8%)
  • agriculture (1.1%)

Employment as compared to GDP growth

Growth in employment occurred mainly in manufacturing sector (4.9%, or an increase of 127,400 persons), services (4.2%, or an increase of 386,800 persons), and mining and quarrying (1.8%; 1,300 persons).

In tandem, the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) also noted an expansion at 8.9% as compared to 5% in the previous quarter, which as explained by Bloomberg, can be attributed "a surge in consumption underpinning the recovery of services and manufacturing, boosting the central bank’s scope to focus on fighting inflation".

In the same vein, labour productivity as measured by value added per employment rose 5.5% (Q1 2022: 2.7%), as employment increased 3.2% (Q1 2022: 2.2%).

Overall, labour productivity by value added per hour worked was RM41.0 (Q1 2022: RM40.3 per hour) while value added per employment was RM23,322 (Q1 2022: RM23,124 per person).

Total hours worked also increased to 8.9bn, as compared to 8.3bn hours worked in the same quarter a year ago. Meanwhile, total employment also increased to 15.7mn persons as compared to 15.6mn persons in the previous quarter.


All photos / Labour Productivity of Second Quarter 2022

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