KUALA LUMPUR: Substantial remote work, including work-from-home (WFH) practices introduced since COVID-19 transmission and the digitalisation advancement, is expected to change the employment landscape and future of work.

According to the Economic Outlook 2022 report released by Finance Ministry today, employers should continue to retrain their workers while employees should continue to upskill themselves to meet the future skills demanded.

"On the supply side, tertiary institutions should give more emphasis on the digital-related programmes and embed analytical thinking and other soft-skills in the existing non-IT related courses that may add value to the workforce upon entering the job market," said the report.

It stated that the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) also highlighted that the demand for digital experts such as software development tripled from 19,000 vacancies in June 2020 to 56,000 vacancies in April 2021.

The report also suggested all ongoing initiatives towards digitalisation should be continued to facilitate businesses to adopt technological tools in the daily operation that will eventually allow the labour market players to progressively move towards automation and digitalisation to meet the future of work.

Furthermore, smaller businesses are recommended to be digitally empowered in various sectors via the available assistance programmes provided such as SME Digital Accelerator Grant, 100GoDigital and Smart Automation Grant to support the industry to automate their business processes and move towards digitalisation.

The report also cited the World Economic Forum Report (2020) which highlighted several strategies that will be taken by Malaysia's companies to cope with the wave of digitalisation and the future work requirements such as accelerating the digitalisation work processes by using digital tools, video conferencing for future work as well as providing more opportunities to work remotely.

"In response to the shifting in skills needs, among others, 86 per cent of the companies surveyed will automate the work; 86 per cent will hire new permanent staff with skills relevant to new technologies; and 86 per cent expect existing employees to pick up skills on the job," the report said.

-- BERNAMA