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, Third Quarter of 2023

The economic sector posted a growth of 2.6 per cent on an annual basis in the number of jobs, with 8.90 million thousand jobs (Q3 2022: 8.68 million). A total of 8.71 million jobs were filled at a rate of 97.9 per cent. 

Meanwhile, the job vacancy rate was at 2.1 per cent, with 190.9 thousand job vacancies. Additionally, the number of jobs created increased by 1.5 thousand to record 32.0 thousand jobs created during this quarter from 30.5 thousand in Q3 2022. 

Labour Demand by Skill

Breaking down jobs by skills category, the semi-skilled category held the majority, accounting for 62.5 per cent, which equals 5.56 million jobs. Another 25.0 per cent or 2.22 million jobs were in the skilled category, while the remaining 12.5 per cent (1.12 million) were in the low-skilled category.

The skilled jobs rose to 2.22 million in the current quarter, from 2.21 million in Q2 2023. There were 2.17 million skilled jobs that were filled, with a rate of 97.8 per cent. Additionally, there were 48.6 thousand job vacancies, with a vacancy rate of 2.2 per cent. Moreover, 9.2 thousand jobs were created in this category, reflecting a modest increase of 0.7 thousand as compared to Q3 2022 (8.5 thousand).

The largest share of jobs was represented by the semi-skilled category, which accounted 5.56 million jobs (Q3 2022: 5.41 million). In the semi-skilled category, the rate of filled jobs stood at 98.1 per cent, with 5.46 million jobs were filled and there were 1.9 per cent or 105.5 thousand jobs, left vacant. Furthermore, the number of jobs created in the semi-skilled category decreased from 18.7 thousand (Q3 2022) to 19.4 thousand in Q3 2023.

For the low-skilled category, the number of jobs recorded was 1.12 million (Q3 2022: 1.11 million). This category posted 1.08 million of filled jobs with a rate of 96.7 per cent and 36.8 thousand vacancies with the vacancies rate of 3.3 per cent. There were 3.3 thousand jobs created in this category encompassing 10.3 per cent of total jobs created.

Labour Demand by Economic Activity

Analysing the labour demand by economic activity, the Services sector stands out as the largest composition of jobs with a percentage share of 51.7 per cent (4.60 million) followed by Manufacturing with 27.7 per cent (2.47 million). Construction and Agriculture sectors accounted for 14.2 per cent and 5.5 per cent of total jobs respectively. Mining & Quarrying sector recorded the smallest share of jobs at 0.9 per cent.

During this quarter, Services sector takes the lead of filled jobs with 52.5 per cent (4.58 million) followed by Manufacturing with 27.1 per cent (2.36 million) and Construction (14.2%; 1.24 million).

As for job vacancies, Manufacturing sector has the largest composition of 56.5 per cent (107.9 thousand) of the total job vacancies, followed by Agriculture at 16.0 per cent (30.5 thousand) and Services at 13.6 per cent (26.1 thousand). Meanwhile, the Services sector created the most new jobs, accounting for 49.8 per cent (15.9 thousand) while Manufacturing ranked second at 32.4 per cent (10.4 thousand) followed by Construction at 12.7 per cent (4.1 thousand).

The publication of the Employment Statistics, Third Quarter 2023 can be downloaded through eStatistics portal.

Released by:

DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS MALAYSIA
10 November 2023