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, Fourth Quarter of 2022

In Q4 2022, the total number of jobs in the economic sector increased by 224.3 thousand to 8.75 million jobs as compared to the same quarter of the preceding year (Q4 2021: 8.53 million). The number of filled jobs increased by a year-on-year growth of 2.6 per cent to 8.56 million jobs (Q4 2021: 8.35 million), with a rate of 97.8 per cent. Meanwhile, the number of job vacancies edged up to 192 thousand as compared to 184 thousand job vacancies in Q4 2021. The number of jobs created continually expanded by 10 thousand to 30.9 thousand jobs created in this quarter compared to 20.9 thousand jobs created in Q4 2021.

Labour Demand by Skill

In the fourth quarter of 2022, the number of jobs in the semi-skilled category has the highest share of 62.3 per cent (5.46 million) followed by skilled (24.9%; 2.18 million) and low-skilled (12.8 %; 1.12 million).

In this quarter, filled jobs in the skilled category marked 2.13 million jobs, which comprised 24.9 per cent of total filled jobs. The number of skilled filled jobs in this quarter increased by 65 thousand from 2.07 million jobs in the same quarter of the prior year. Additionally, the number of job vacancies in this category grew by 5.7 thousand to 48.6 thousand vacancies and year-on-year growth of 13.3 per cent. The rate of filled jobs in the skilled category made up of 97.8 per cent, whereas the vacancies rate accounted for 2.2 per cent. This category registered a total of 8.7 thousand jobs created.

The number of filled jobs in the semi-skilled category increased by 143 thousand to 5.35 million filled jobs in this quarter (Q4 2021: 5.21 million). Meanwhile, the number of job vacancies in this category edged up to 105.9 thousand vacancies, an increase of 3.2 thousand from the same quarter the preceding year (102.7 thousand). In this quarter, the rate of filled jobs for this category accounted for 98.1 per cent, whereas the vacancies rate was 1.9 per cent. In total, there were 19.5 thousand jobs created in this category.

On the other hand, the number of filled jobs in the low-skilled category rose by 8 thousand to 1.08 million filled jobs (Q4 2021: 1.07 million) with the rate of filled jobs at 96.6 per cent. The number of job vacancies in this category decreased by 0.4 per cent to record 37.8 thousand vacancies in this quarter, with a vacancy rate of 3.4 per cent. A total of 2.7 thousand jobs were created in this category.

Labour Demand by Economic Activity

Based on the labour demand by economic activity, the Services sector made up the largest composition of jobs and filled jobs with a share of 51.8 per cent (4.53 million) and 52.6 per cent (4.50 million) respectively. In the meantime, the Manufacturing sector encompassed 27.6 per cent (2.41 million) of total jobs and 26.9 per cent (2.31 million) of total filled jobs.

The largest share of job vacancies was posted by the Manufacturing sector, which accounted for 55.9 per cent (108 thousand) of total job vacancies followed by Agriculture (16.5%; 32 thousand), Services (15.3%; 29 thousand), Construction (12.1%; 23 thousand) and Mining & Quarrying (0.2%; 0.4 thousand).

Services sector registered the highest share of jobs created at 51.5 per cent (16 thousand) followed by Manufacturing and Construction at 32.7 per cent (10 thousand) and 10.0 per cent (3.1 thousand) respectively.

The publication of the Employment Statistics, Fourth Quarter 2022 can be downloaded through  eStatistik Portal.

Released by:
DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS MALAYSIA
9 February 2023

Contact person:
Baharudin Mohamad
Public Relation Officer
Strategic Communication and International Division
Department of Statistics, Malaysia
Tel : +603-8885 7942
Fax : +603-8888 9248
Email : baharudin@dosm.gov.my