PUTRAJAYA: The number of jobs increased by 2.4% in the second quarter (Q2) of 2023 to 8.83 million compared to 8.62 million in Q2 2022, according to the of Statistics Malaysia Department on Saturday (Aug 14).
Following this, Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin (pic) said an upward trend in the number of filled jobs was observed with an increase of 2.5% to record 8.64 million jobs in Q2 2023 compared to 8.42 million jobs in Q2 2022.
However, he said the number of job vacancies experienced negative growth and declined 0.9% by registering 189,600 vacancies compared to 191,300 vacancies during Q2 2022.
"During this period, the rates of filled jobs and job vacancies were at 97.9 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively, reflecting a balanced and competitive labour market," he said in a statement on Employment Statistics of Second Quarter of 2023.
On the filled jobs scenario during Q2 2023, he said the mining and quarrying sector led the way with the highest growth rate of 3.6%, followed by manufacturing at 3.1% and agriculture at 3.0%.
On job distribution by economic activity, the services sector emerged as the largest contributor of filled jobs accounting for 4.55 million jobs or 52.7% of the total filled jobs, while the manufacturing sector with 2.32 million filled jobs (26.9%) and the construction sector with 1.24 million filled jobs (14.3%).
Mohd Uzir said the total number of job vacancies in the economic sector in Q2 2023 decreased by 1,700 to 189,600 from 191,300 in Q2 2022.
"More than half of the job vacancies were in the manufacturing sector with 108,000 vacancies, while agriculture ranked second with 30,700 job vacancies," he said.
On job creation during Q2 2023, Mohd Uzir said 31,900 new jobs were added to cater for the growing demands subsequent to the recovering economy, with 16,500 new jobs from the services sector.
"Overall labour demand in the economic sector in Q2 2023 continued to show a positive trend despite global recession risks, leading to an increase in job opportunities and reinforcing the strength of Malaysia's labour market," he said.
Jobs refers to total labour which was comprised of filled jobs and vacancies, while filled jobs referred to paid employees both full-time and part-time workers, thus excluding individual proprietors and business partners.
Vacancies referred to unfilled jobs which were ready to be filled and new jobs meant jobs created in an organisation which were not previously available. - Bernama
