BUSINESSES are beginning to recruit workers as various economic sectors reopen in regions in phases 1 and 2 of the national recovery plan, industry heads said.

Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) president Syed Hussain Syed Husman said employers are starting to hire in anticipation of a relaxation of restrictions after more than a year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As of August 27, at least 44,766 employees have been laid off,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Employers have had to retrench after other cost cutting measures such as freezing pay, reducing overtime, imposing more rest days and voluntary pay cuts. Even then, they were unable to save their business, he said.

Data from the employment insurance programme showed that from January to August 27, there were 1.46 million vacancies as opposed to 613,107 job seekers.

Of this, 384,110 were for elementary occupations, 277,809 were for professional vacancies, and 234,983 were for sales and services positions.

Compared to 2020, there were 739,742 vacancies, while there were 468,102 job seekers.

There are small signs of recovery, such as July’s unemployment rate, which had stagnated from June’s 4.8%.

The Statistics Department attributed this, in part, to the national recovery plan that has allowed more economic activities to resume in phase 2 states.

SME Association president Michael Kang predicts that information technology-savvy employees will be in demand as the pandemic has shown the importance of digitalisation.

“Currently, SMEs have not started recruiting new employees as the vaccination rate in many states is still low. So, it will take time for SMEs to recover.”

Yet, when they do, Kang said, it is likely that SMEs will employ part-time workers with IT skills as many SMEs lack employees with these capabilities.

“SMEs are the backbone of the Malaysian economy. Nearly 98% or 1 million domestic enterprises are SMEs. We hope to regain our momentum through recruitment and increasing productivity.

“With digitalisation, SMEs will start looking for employees familiar with IT and web design,” said Kang.

The food and beverage sector will also begin gradual recruitment, with some companies already beginning to do so this month, said Tony Lim of the Malaysian F&B Operators Alliance.

He said due to the rolling lockdowns, many employers in the F&B sector were forced to lay off their staff or put them on unpaid leave. Therefore, there is a need for a 20% increase in manpower.

Lim said a medium-size restaurant usually employs around 10 staff, but are now left with six to eight employees due to lay-offs.

Places like these will try to hire at least two new employees each, he said, with priority usually given to former employees who were let go during the pandemic.

Lim, who is also the founder of Thai restaurant Boat Noodle, said of the 54 outlets in his chain nationwide, 18 have closed due to the pandemic.

He used to employ around 800 staff but now has only half that number.

One trend he predicts because of the pandemic is that F&B employers may opt for more part-time employees.

It is still unclear when people’s lifestyles of eating out freely and socialising can return to normal, or pre-pandemic levels.

Even with dine-ins allowed for the vaccinated population, F&B industry players said business is still slow as many consumers remain fearful of virus infections.

One lesson learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic, Syed Hussain said, is to shock-proof businesses against future uncertainties.

“The pandemic was a reality check on the resilience and agility of their businesses, and what needs to be done to protect them against future shocks and other disruptive forces.”

Many areas of potential disruption have to be taken into account, such as supply chain disruptions, workplace management, safety, liquidity and compliance with standard operating procedures. – September 11, 2021.