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.

The labour demand continued to expand in Q2 2024, with the number of jobs rose by 1.5 per cent compared to the same quarter of the previous year, registering a total of 8.96 million jobs (Q2 2023: 8.83 million). Additionally, the number of filled jobs edged up to 8.76 million, marking a rate of filled jobs at 97.9 per cent, up by 0.1 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

On the other hand, the vacancy rate dropped to 2.1 per cent, corresponding to 191.4 thousand unoccupied jobs compared to 189.8 thousand in Q2 2023. Moreover, 31.86 thousand new jobs were created this quarter, rising from 31.70 thousand in the same quarter last year

Labour Demand by Skill

In terms of distribution by skill category, it is evident that labour demand was primarily driven by the semi-skilled category, which made up more than half of the total of all indicators. This was followed by skilled and low-skilled categories across all indicators.

The skilled category maintained positive growth this quarter, reaching 2.24 million jobs, indicating a 1.7 per cent year-on-year increase (+38 thousand) compared to 2.20 million jobs in Q2 2023. Of these, 2.19 million jobs were filled, representing a high rate of filled jobs at 97.9 per cent. In addition, the vacancy rate stood at 2.1 per cent, corresponding to 48.0 thousand vacancies. Besides, the number of jobs created in this quarter edged down by 7.3 per cent, amounting to 8.5 thousand jobs compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

In this quarter, the semi-skilled category emerged as the largest contributor with 62.5 per cent, which corresponds to 5.60 million jobs. Following that, the rate of filled jobs was 98.1 per cent, accounting for 5.49 million jobs, while the vacancy rate was 1.9 per cent, equivalent to 106.8 thousand vacancies. Additionally, the number of jobs created rose by 2.2 per cent or equivalent to 20.0 thousand (Q2 2023: 19.6 thousand).

With regards to the low skilled category, there was a marginal decrease of 0.1 per cent in the number of jobs, totalling 1.11 million jobs as compared to the same quarter in 2023 (1.12 million). At the same time, 1.08 million jobs were filled, resulting in a filled jobs rate of 96.7 per cent whereas 36.7 thousand vacancies were available, marking a vacancy rate of 3.3 per cent. The low-skilled category also saw the creation of 3.3 thousand new jobs, representing 10.4 per cent of total jobs created. 

Labour Demand by Economic Sector

Breaking down by economic sector, the Services sector led with a percentage share of 51.9 per cent (4.65 million) of total jobs. This was followed by Manufacturing at 27.5 per cent (2.46 million). Furthermore, Construction sector contributed 14.1 per cent (1.27 million), while Agriculture sector accounted for 5.6 per cent (501 thousand). The sector with the lowest representation was Mining & Quarrying, with 0.9 per cent or 81 thousand jobs. 

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