KUALA LUMPUR (June 14): Malaysia is seeing more job vacancies for high- and mid-skilled positions in the first three months of 2019 (1Q19), while vacancies for low-skilled positions hit a two-year low in February this year, says MIDF Research.

Average job vacancies for senior officials, professionals and technicians stood at 800, 2,600 and 3,300 respectively for the quarter, from 400, 1,800 and 1,600 respectively in the corresponding period last year, said the research house in a note.

While Malaysia's job vacancies will continue to be dominated by low-skilled positions, in February 2019, total vacancies for elementary occupations and operators fell to 82.7% — constituting a two-year low.

"Moving forward, we believe the dominance of low-skilled jobs will gradually decline and that high-skilled jobs will increase as we expect re-exports performance will continue trending downwards amid higher base effects and slowdown in the global market especially for electrical and electronics (E&E) sector," the research house said.

It added given the expected recovery in mining and agricultural goods, domestic exports will increase thus offering more vacancies for medium- and high-skilled jobs.

Overall, average job vacancies for 1Q19 grew to 93,700, from 1Q18's 91,300.

MIDF Research said the labour market is expected to remain steady as the economy is still under a full state of employment.

However, it noted that in April, the labour force grew 2% year-on-year (y-o-y), constituting a 17-month low.

On the other hand, employment growth stood at 1.9% y-o-y, with monthly jobs added in the economy reaching 54,600 — marking a one-year high.

Unemployment increased to 2.6% y-o-y, outpacing growth in the labour force and employment for two consecutive months.

MIDF Research expects the labour market to continue to expand in tandem with industrial and external trade activities.

Malaysia will have an average unemployment rate of 3.3% in 2019, it predicted.