THE local labour market is expected to remain strong in 2019 but dominated by low-skilled jobs, according to MIDF Research.

In a report on the Malaysian labour market released yesterday, the research house said last year, the labour force saw an increase of 2.2% year-on-year to 15 million employed.

In January 2019, the labour force expanded further by 2.1% y-o-y to 15.5 million, it said.

However, for that same month, the majority of jobs available were low-skilled work, with 77.6% of job vacancies for elementary positions, 11.8% for operators, and only 10.6% for medium- and high-skilled jobs.

In 2005, elementary occupation and operators constituted 30.9% and 15.4% of vacancies respectively, while high-skilled jobs, such as senior officials, professionals and technicians, held 19.8%.

“In a simple word, for every 100 jobs offered in 2018, 89 opportunities are for low-skilled, seven for medium-skilled and four for high-skilled workers,” said the research house.

The report said the agriculture, forestry and fishing, manufacturing, construction and service sectors saw the biggest demand in jobs last year.

“Moving into 2019, we expect an increase in job vacancies, particularly for the agriculture, mining and construction sectors amid a gradual pick-up in global commodity prices and increases in government investments,” it said.

MIDF Research also forecast Malaysia’s unemployment rate to average at 3.3% in 2019.

“The stable labour market is expected to impact positively to the economy via supporting private consumption as well as drive Malaysia’s domestic economy through the growing consumer optimism.

“We predict labour market to stay on expansion pace in tandem with industrial and external trade activities.” – March 12, 2019.