179,000 job vacancies in private sector during Q3 2020

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the job vacancies rate during the quarter was 2.1 per cent of total jobs, a slight increase compared with the two per cent in Q2 2020.

Overall, he said, the resumption of more businesses during the Recovery Movement Control Order enforced in June 2020, observed slight improvement in the labour demand for the third quarter of 2020 as businesses were still adjusting and had yet to resume operations at optimum level.

“The implementation of the stimulus packages and short-term economic plans by the government, such as PENJANA, will enable the ease and survival of industries,” he said in a statement today.

More related information can be accessed via the department’s website under its ‘Employment Statistics Third Quarter 2020’ report, which was based on the quarterly employment survey conducted on registered businesses in the private sector.

The report presents labour demand statistics encompassing jobs, filled jobs, vacancies and jobs created by the skills category and economic activities.

Mohd Uzir said out of the total job vacancies in Q3, 55.7 per cent was in the semi-skilled category while 22.7 per cent were for skilled employment.

He said more than half of the job vacancies were in the manufacturing sector (56 per cent), largely in the subsector of electrical, electronic and optical products as well as petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products.

“The number of jobs rose by 88,000 to 8.5 million compared with Q2. Rate of filled jobs during the quarter was 97.9 per cent from 98 per cent in Q2, equivalent to 8.3 million.

“Looking at the composition of filled jobs by category, semi-skilled largely made up 62.5 per cent (5.2 million) while skilled comprised 24.4 per cent (2.0 million),” he said.

He said a total of 1.5 million filled jobs (52.5 per cent) was concentrated in the services sector followed by manufacturing (26.0 per cent) and construction (15.2 per cent). The remaining was in agriculture (5.4 per cent) and mining and quarrying (one per cent).

“In addition, there were 21,000 jobs created in the private sector during the quarter compared to 13,700 jobs in the previous quarter. Majority of the jobs created was semi-skilled category comprising 62.9 per cent or 13.1 thousand while skilled category made up 28.1 per cent (5.9 thousand).

“By economic activity, a total of 42.9 per cent or 9.0 thousand new jobs were created in the manufacturing sector, particularly in the subsector of petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products and electrical, electronic and optical products,” he said.

He said 38.9 per cent (8,100) of new jobs were created in the services sector, mainly in wholesale and retail trade as well as finance, insurance and business services subsectors.

Meanwhile, Mohd Uzir said the first phase of the Census of Malaysia 2020 which was implemented last July 7 until Sept 30 via online (e-Census) has been extended to Dec 21, 2020 while the second phase involving face to face interview will begin on Jan 20 until Feb 6, 2021.

Further information on the Census 2020 is available at www.mycensus.gov.my or social media@MyCensus2020.