Chief statistician Uzir Mahidin said most of Malaysia’s jobs are semi-skilled, representing 62.5% of total employment, while skilled roles make up 25.2% and low-skilled positions account for 12.3%.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s total employment reached a record 9.16 million jobs in the third quarter of 2025, a 1.7% increase from the same period last year, according to the statistics department.
Chief statistician Uzir Mahidin said 97.8% of positions were filled, with only 2.2% remaining vacant, reflecting steady growth in labour demand across the economy.
He also said the emergence of artificial intelligence and automation was reshaping Malaysia’s job landscape, creating more technology-driven opportunities while reducing demand for routine and manual tasks.
“The economic sector in Malaysia continues to show favourable growth momentum during this quarter, in tandem with the swift (ongoing) transition in technology adaptation,” he said in a statement today.
Uzir said the services sector remained the largest employer, accounting for 53.1% or 4.76 million filled jobs, followed by the manufacturing sector (26.9%) and construction (13.9%).
He said most of Malaysia’s jobs were semi-skilled, representing 62.5% of total employment, while skilled roles made up 25.2% and low-skilled positions accounted for 12.3%.
Job vacancies rose 2.8% year-on-year to 197,100, led by the manufacturing sector which contributed more than half of all available positions.
Within manufacturing, the electrical, electronic and optical products subsector recorded the highest number of vacancies at 35,400, followed by petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products with 19,800 openings.
A total of 32,300 new jobs were created in the quarter, an increase of 1.6% from a year earlier, with nearly half of them in the services sector.
The wholesale and retail trade subsector alone contributed 9,000 new jobs, while the manufacturing sector created 12,200 new positions. More than 64% of the new roles were semi-skilled.
