Malaysia’s labour market rebounded in the first quarter of 2022, adding 148,520 jobs compared to the same quarter of the preceding year to record 8.57 million jobs, while the quarter-on-quarter basis increased by 41,400 jobs.

Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the 8.57 million jobs recorded in the economic sector as businesses continued to operate during the National Recovery Plan phases were also in tandem with further expansion in global and domestic activities, fuelled by broader vaccination coverage and a further improvement in merchandise trade.

“The number of filled jobs in this quarter (Q1 2022) recorded an increase of 142,060 jobs to 8.39 million jobs against 8.25 million jobs in the first quarter of 2021,” he said in a statement today following the release of the Employment Statistics First Quarter 2022 report.

The report presents the labour demand statistics, encompassing jobs, filled jobs, vacancies and jobs created indicators by skill categories and economic activities.

Uzir said the manufacturing and services sectors continued to record positive growth of 3.6% compared with 2.7% in Q1 2021 and 1.9% (Q1 2021: 1.0%) respectively.

Filled jobs were largely in the semi-skilled category with 5.24 million jobs or 62.5%, followed by the skilled category with 2.07 million jobs (24.7%) and low-skilled with 1.07 million jobs (12.8%), he added.

On job vacancies, he said this had consistently recorded positive year-on-year growth for two consecutive quarters and posted an increase of 6,460 vacancies to 184,320 job vacancies during this quarter (Q1 2021: 177,850).

Uzir said the labour market had gradually recovered consequent to the resumption of most economic and social activities, with the number of jobs created surging to 25,840 during this quarter.

“This was the highest number recorded during the pandemic period and surpassed the pre-pandemic level where an average of 25,000 jobs were created,” he said.