KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — Malaysia’s employment market charted an average salary growth of 3.2 per cent year-on-year, with education/training and accounting/finance specialisations having the highest salary increase rates, according to JobStreet Malaysia’s Salary Report 2022.
On the other hand, several industries and specialisations including food and beverages (F&B), hotels/restaurants, building/construction, and sales & marketing saw a decrease in salaries due to Covid-19-led lockdowns, layoffs and digitisation uptake.
JobStreet said the report was based on data collected between the first quarter (Q1) and Q3 of 2021, against the same three quarters of 2020.
Overall, 43.3 per cent of new job listings in Malaysia saw increases in salary offered, while 18.9 per cent remained unchanged.
The public sector saw the highest pay rise with 63 per cent of new jobs posted seeing salary increases, followed by the education, consumer goods, and transportation industries at 46 per cent.
In terms of specialisations, 48 per cent of jobs involving education/training saw pay rises, followed by jobs in computer/information technology (IT) and admin/human resource (HR) (46 per cent).
Meanwhile, the manufacturing, arts/media/communications and engineering were the top three specialisations with pay cuts during the period.
Job applicants in the science & technology industry saw one of the top pay rises, with manager positions seeing a median year-on-year salary growth of 17.2 per cent.
Entry-level job posts in communications services and electrical/electronics industries also experienced a significant growth in median salaries, at 33.3 per cent and 15.4 per cent, respectively.
On the contrary, in sales and marketing, managers and senior managers experienced median salaries shrink by 11.4 per cent and 52.5 per cent, respectively.
Despite this, sales and marketing remained the specialisation with the most number of job advertisements posted for two consecutive years.
The highest-paid specialisation in Malaysia is computer/IT, with a median salary of RM6,000.
‘‘Workers in computer/IT can take comfort in the fact that they earn the most across all other specialisations and regardless of position level, except for senior managers who earn a median salary of RM17,000 as opposed to those in admin/HR who earn RM22,250.
‘‘With a median salary of RM6,000, the telecommunications industry is the highest-paying industry,’’ JobStreet said.
Meanwhile, the insurance industry experienced the highest median salary growth at 14.6 per cent (RM700) in 2021.
‘‘Workers in the F&B industry should be aware that their industry is the most at risk, with a 40 per cent decrease in median salary,” it noted. — Bernama
