Malaysia’s labour demand grew 1.8% to 9.21 million jobs in Q4 2025, the highest growth since Q1 2024, driven by strong government fiscal support.

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s labour demand increased by 1.8% to 9.21 million jobs in the fourth quarter of 2025. This marks the highest quarterly growth since the first quarter of 2024, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the growth was driven by comprehensive government fiscal support and policy initiatives.

“Filled jobs accounted for 97.8% of total jobs and vacancies made up the remaining 2.2%,” he said in a statement.

The number of filled jobs edged up consistently to 9.02 million, the highest recorded in the series. This represents a 1.8% year-on-year growth from the 8.86 million filled jobs in Q4 2024.

A total of 32,100 new jobs were created during the quarter. All economic sectors contributed positively to the overall growth, led by the services sector at 2.6%.

The services sector dominated filled jobs, accounting for 53.1% or 4.80 million positions. It was followed by the manufacturing sector at 26.9% (2.42 million) and construction at 13.9% (1.25 million).

In terms of skills, the semi-skilled category was the largest contributor with 62.3% or 5.62 million jobs. The skilled category followed with 25.3% (2.27 million), and the low-skilled category accounted for 12.4% (1.12 million).

By economic activity, the manufacturing sector had the most vacancies at 115,800 or 58.4% of the total. The electrical, electronic, and optical products sub-sector led with 35,700 vacancies.

The petroleum, chemical, rubber, and plastic products sub-sector recorded 20,500 vacancies. The agriculture and services sectors recorded 32,000 and 25,000 vacancies, respectively.

 The Sun Malaysia