Malaysia's economic sector recorded 8.83mn jobs in Q2 2023, up 2.4% year-on-year

Semi-skilled jobs made up the majority (62.4%), followed by skilled jobs (25%) and low-skilled jobs (12.6%).

Malaysia saw a higher number of jobs in the economic sector in Q2 2023, recording 8.827mn jobs in total (~8.83mn) – up 2.4% from 2022, which saw 8.619mn jobs (~8.62mn).

Of these, a total of 8.637mn (97.9%) were filled, recording 210,000 more filled jobs year-on-year (y-o-y), according to the Department of Statistics' (DOSM) Employment Statistics, Q2 2023 report released on Monday (14 August 2023). The report presents labour demand statistics in Malaysia based on the Quarterly Employment Survey conducted on formal private sector establishments encompassing major economic activities, namely agriculture, mining & quarrying, manufacturing, construction, and services. The principal statistics of employment presented in this report are jobs, filled jobs, vacancies and jobs created by economic activity, and category of skill.

Looking at vacancies, a total of 190,000 job roles were vacant in Q2 this year, which DOSM noted was 1,000 fewer vacancies than in Q2 2022. At the same time, a higher number of jobs was created y-o-y, reaching 31,940 (Q2 2022: 29,400).

The above data was then broken down in terms of category of skill and economic activity.

Category of skill

Breaking down the data in this category, the semi-skilled category dominated the jobs, making up 62.4% of the total (5.506mn). Additionally, 25% (or 2.205mn) comprised skilled jobs, and the remaining 12.6% (or 1.116mn) comprised low-skilled jobs.

The report further revealed:

• The skilled category:
  • Grew by 2.9% y-o-y (Q2 2022: 2.144mn).
  • The number of filled jobs recorded in this category stood at 2.156mn (rate of 97.8%), with 49,000 job vacancies (rate of 2.2%).
  • A total of 9,400 jobs were created in this category, up 8.9% from the previous quarter (Q1 2023: 8,600).
    
    
• The semi-skilled category:
  • Registered a growth of 2.6% on a yearly basis (Q2 2022: 5.364mn).
  • The rate of filled jobs and vacancies for this category was 98.1%, recording 5.401mn jobs; and 1.9% (104,700 jobs) respectively.
  • At the same time, the number of vacancies in this category declined by 1.3% in Q2 2023, when compared to last quarter (Q1 2023: 106,200).
  • Jobs created in the category also declined by 5.9% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) from 20,200 to 19,000.
    
    
• Low-skilled category:
  • The number of jobs in this category increased by 0.4% this quarter, up from 1.111mn in Q2 last year.
  • Of the total jobs, 1.080mn were filled, with a rate of 96.8%, while the number of vacancies stood at 35,800 (or 3.2%).
  • A total of 3,500 jobs were created in this category, making up 11% of the total jobs created.

Economic activity

Analysing the labour demand by economic activity, DOSM cited the services sector as the largest contributor of jobs in Q2 2023, contributing 51.8% of the total jobs (4.577mn), followed by the manufacturing sector with 27.5% (2.429mn).

Meanwhile, the construction sector made up 14.3% of the total jobs, followed by agriculture making up 5.5%. On the other hand, the mining & quarrying sector recorded the smallest proportion of jobs (0.9%, or 80,000).

Looking at the portion of jobs filled, DOSM noted the same trend as the total jobs:

• Services: 52.7%; 4.550mn jobs
• Manufacturing: 26.9%; 2.321mn jobs
• Construction: 14.3%; 1.235mn jobs
• Agriculture: 5.2%; 451,000
• Mining & Quarrying: 0.9%; 80,000

As for job vacancies, the manufacturing sector saw the highest number of jobs open, recording 108,000 (56.9%). This was followed by agriculture (16.3%; 31,000) and services (14.1%; 27,000).

Meanwhile, the highest number of jobs created was in the services sector (51.6%;16,000), while manufacturing ranked second (31.5%; 10,000) and construction came in third (11.3%; 4,000).

Apart from the above, the report also shared details on each sector's performance in terms of labour demand. Highlights are as follow:

• Agriculture:
  • This sector had 2.8% more jobs Q2 2023, recording a total of 482,000 jobs – up from 469,000 in Q2 2022.
  • The rate of jobs filled was 93.6%, with a total of 451,000 jobs that were filled, while the vacancies rate stood at 6.4% of the sector's total jobs (31,000). 
  • This sector created 16,500 jobs in this quarter.
    
    
• Mining & quarrying:
  • A total of 80,000 jobs were recorded in this sector Q2 2023, with a rate of 99.5% filled jobs.
  • The rate vacancies recorded was 0.5 per cent, corresponding to 0.41 thousand job vacancies, while the jobs created recorded was 0.12 thousand.
    
    
• Manufacturing:
  • A total of 2.429mn jobs were created in manufacturing in Q2 this year, reflecting an increase of 70,000 jobs as compared to the corresponding quarter of last year. Out of these jobs, 95.6% (2.321mn) were filled, while the remaining 4.4% (108,000) were vacant.
  • Across the sub-sectors, the electrical, electronic, and optical products had the highest number of jobs (655,000), followed by petroleum, chemical, rubber, and plastic products with 449,000 jobs.
    
    
• Construction:
  • DOSM reported a "notable increase" of 21,000 registered jobs in this sector this quarter, bringing the total to 1.259mn jobs (Q2 2022: 1.238mn).
  • The rate of filled jobs stood at 98.1% (1.235mn), while rate of vacancies accounted for 1.9% (24,000) of the total.
  • This sector created 3,620 jobs, a rise of 5.1% compared to Q2 2022 (3,450).
    
    
• Services:
  • During this quarter, the sector posted a year-on-year growth of 2.3%, recording with 4.577mn jobs, as compared to Q2 last year which saw 4.476mn jobs in total.
  • The filled job rate stood at 99.4% (4.550mn), while the rate of available job vacancies constituted 0.6% (27,000).
  • Almost all sub-sectors recorded filled jobs rates exceeding 99%, except for the finance, insurance, real estate, and business services, which posted a slightly lower rate at 98.9%.
  • The food & beverages and accommodation sub-sector recorded the highest filled jobs rate, at 99.7% (804,000).

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