Overview

Introduction

This publication presents the labour demand statistics 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.

Labour Demand, First Quarter of 2024

During this quarter, the economic sector experienced jobs expansion at 1.5 per cent year-on-year, recording 8.94 million jobs, as opposed to the same quarter of the preceding year (Q1 2023: 8.81 million). There were 8.75 million filled jobs with the rate of 97.9 per cent, increased by 0.1 percentage points from last year (Q1 2023: 8.61 million).

Meanwhile, the vacancy rate was 2.1 per cent, declining by one thousand as compared to Q1 2023 (192.6 thousand) to mark 191.9 thousand vacancies. Besides that, a total of 32.1 thousand new jobs were created in this quarter (Q1 2023: 31.7 thousand).

Labour Demand by Skill

Looking at the distribution across the skills category, all indicators in labour demand were concentrated in the semi-skilled category accounting more than half of the total shares, followed by skilled and low-skilled.

The skilled category registered 2.24 million jobs, rose by 2.0 per cent on annual basis (+44 thousand) compared to Q1 2023 (2.20 million). Following to this, the rate of filled jobs stayed notably high at 97.9 per cent, corresponding to 2.19 million jobs. Additionally, there were 47.8 thousand vacancies, constituting a 2.1 per cent vacancy rate. The number of jobs created for this quarter grew by 2.8 per cent, totalling 8.9 thousand jobs compared to the same quarter of the previous year (Q1 2023: 8.6 thousand).

During this quarter, the semi-skilled category contributed the highest share of jobs across all categories with 62.5 per cent (5.59 million). Subsequently, the rate of filled jobs stood at 98.1 per cent registering 5.48 million jobs while the vacancy rate was 1.9 per cent (107.5 thousand). On the contrary, the number of jobs created declined by 1.6 per cent from 20.2 thousand (Q1 2023) to 19.9 thousand in Q1 2024.

For the low-skilled category, there was a 0.5 per cent decline in the number of jobs, to record 1.11 million compared to the same quarter of last year (Q1 2023: 1.12 million). Meanwhile, there were 1.07 million jobs were filled with a rate of 96.7 per cent and 36.6 thousand vacancies with a vacancy rate of 3.3 percent. Moreover, 3.4 thousand new jobs were created for low-skilled category, constituting 10.5 per cent of total jobs created.

Labour Demand by Economic Activity

In terms of composition by economic activity, the Services sector contributed the largest share of jobs with a percentage share of 51.8 per cent (4.64 milllion), followed by Manufacturing with 27.5 per cent (2.46 millon). Construction and Agriculture sector accounted for 14.2 per cent (1.27 million) and 5.6 per cent (499.4 thousand) of jobs respectively. The Mining & Quarrying sector held the lowest proportion of jobs at 0.9 per cent or equivalent to 80.5 thousand jobs.

The Services sector comprised more than half of the filled jobs, accounting for 52.7 per cent, equivalent to 4.61 million jobs. Followed suit was the Manufacturing sector with a share of 26.9 per cent, totalling 2.35 million jobs. Meanwhile, the Construction and Agriculture sector contributed 14.2 per cent (1.24 million) and 5.3 per cent (467.3 thousand) each. Lastly, the Mining & Quarrying sector had the least share at 0.9 per cent, depicting 80.0 thousand jobs.

For the jobs vacancy, Manufacturing sector posted the largest proportion, comprising 56.7 per cent (108.8 thousand). Then, Agriculture and Construction sector followed with 16.7 per cent (32.1 thousand) and 13.4 per cent (25.7 thousand) respectively.

Furthermore, the jobs created in the Services sector was 49.5 per cent (15.9 thousand), while Manufacturing came in second with 33.3 per cent (10.7 thousand), followed by Construction at 11.9 per cent (3.8 thousand).

The publication of the Employment Statistics, First Quarter of 2024 can be downloaded through eStatistics portal.

Released by:

DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS MALAYSIA
15 May 2024

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