Employment opportunities increase in Malaysia

Compared to the corresponding quarter in 2020, the number rose by 0.9% or 73,600 from 8.46 million, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

The increase of jobs in this quarter was in line with the continuous economic and labour market activities following the shifting of most states to the Phase 4 of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) during the period, although it remained lower than the pre-pandemic period, said Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

“With most restrictions lifted as well as almost all economic sectors and social activities reopened, the number of filled jobs also rose to 8.35 million jobs in this quarter (4Q20: 8.28 million), thus signifying that the businesses had gradually picked up. In the meantime, the rate of filled jobs and job vacancies were 97.8% and 2.2%, respectively.

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“During this quarter, the manufacturing sector continued its upward trend by registering a year-on-year growth of 2.7% (4Q20: 1.6%) to record a total of 2.22 million filled jobs. Meanwhile, filled jobs in the services sector were 4.39 million, which turned around to 1% from -0.9% in the previous quarter,” he said in a statement.

Barring new and more harmful variants of COVID-19, the labour market in Malaysia is expected to trend up in the upcoming period, he said, according to The Malaysia Reserve.