PUTRAJAYA, Feb 12 — Malaysia’s labour demand increased by 1.8 per cent to 9.21 million jobs in the fourth quarter of 2025 (Q4 2025), marking the highest growth since the first quarter of last year, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

The growth was driven by comprehensive government fiscal support and policy initiatives aimed at stimulating economic activity, said Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

“Filled jobs accounted for 97.8 per cent of total jobs and vacancies made up the remaining 2.2 per cent. Meanwhile, there were a total of 32.1 thousand new jobs created during this quarter.

“The number of filled jobs has consistently edged up to 9.02 million, the highest recorded in the series, marking a 1.8 per cent year-on year growth (Q4 2024: 8.86 million),” he said in a statement today.

Elaborating, Mohd Uzir said all sectors contributed positively to the overall growth, led by the services sector at 2.6 per cent.

This sector, he said, also dominated filled jobs, accounting for 53.1 per cent or 4.80 million filled jobs, followed by the manufacturing (26.9 per cent: 2.42 million) and construction (13.9 per cent: 1.25 million) sectors.

In terms of skills, the semi-skilled category emerged as the largest contributor with 62.3 per cent (5.62 million), followed by the skilled and low-skilled categories with 25.3 per cent (2.27 million) and 12.4 per cent (1.12 million), respectively.

By economic activity, the manufacturing sector had the most vacancies at 115.8 thousand (58.4 per cent), mainly in the electrical, electronic, and optical Products sub-sector (35.7 thousand) and the petroleum, chemical, rubber, and plastic products sub-sector (20.5 thousand).

Additionally, the agriculture and services sectors recorded 32.0 thousand (16.2 per cent) and 25.0 thousand (12.6 per cent) vacancies, respectively. — Bernama