KUALA LUMPUR (May 14): The first quarter of 2020 saw softer labour demand in the private sector as the Covid-19 pandemic spread and the government reacted to contain it, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

This unprecedented event has put workers at risk of a pay cut while job seekers are expected to face more challenging times in securing employment as the labour demand has shrunk, it said.

In its latest quarterly employment statistics, it said there were 166,000 job vacancies during the first quarter of the year, a drop of 35,000 from a year ago. Meanwhile, 19,000 jobs were created, a drop of 4,000 from last year, with most of them created in the first two months of the year.

“Nevertheless, the effect of movement control order (MCO) to contain the Covid-19 pandemic was not fully reflected in labour demand situation for the first quarter of 2020 since it was only implemented during the last two weeks of March 2020,” DOSM said in a statement today.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the decline in job vacancies was due to the cautionary steps taken by the industry amid slower economic performance of the country. Job vacancies were predominantly in the semi-skilled category (52.3%) while the skilled category represented 25.7%.

“Last Friday, DOSM released unemployment statistics for March 2020 whereby unemployed persons increased by 17.1% to 610,500 with a rate of 3.9%. The status of labour demand and supply for the quarter gave early signal of disequilibrium in the labour market,” he said.

Meanwhile, the rate of filled jobs rose to 98.1%, with most or 62.6% of them in the semi-skilled category. Total jobs in the first quarter rose by 18,000 year-on-year to 8.57 million.

Looking ahead, DOSM noted that Malaysia’s labour market will soften further in the second quarter of 2020 due to impact of the extended phases of the MCO until the May 3, followed by conditional MCO until June 9.

“On top of that, slower global demand will give more pressure to the labour market which will lessen labour demand, particularly in the international trade and tourism-related industries. In this regard, quick adjustment to the labour market disequilibrium is essential to increase demand for jobs and consequently reduce unemployment,” it said.