KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 17): Malaysian employees can expect to see 3% to 20% salary adjustments, with high-growth industries like technology and manufacturing making more significant changes to their internal salary structures in 2023.

In its 2023 Job Market and Salary Trends Report released on Tuesday (Jan 17),  human resources solutions agency Randstad Malaysia said recruitment activities are at an all-time high in 2022, as companies double down to expand their workforce with the best talent that Malaysia has to offer.

The firm said it expects this trend to continue in 2023, albeit at a slightly slower pace and with a greater focus on specialised roles.

It said companies will see success in their hiring strategies only if steps are taken to manage new talent expectations and upskill the local workforce.

Randstad said this comes in the backdrop of the slowing global economy, with many global companies cutting back on recruitment activities in light of the recession and record-high inflation to focus on budgetary controls.

However, it said the recession could benefit Malaysia’s labour market as companies are likely to move their business units and headcount from Europe to Southeast Asian countries.

It said this would drive the creation of new jobs for the local workforce and will also attract more top-tier global talent to relocate to Malaysia.

Randstad said technology will be the focal point of growth in Malaysia in the coming years.

It said the digital technology industry is projected to contribute 22.6% GDP by 2025.

The firm said that correspondingly, digital job vacancies have tripled from 19,000 to 56,000 within a year and 5G technology developments will create 750,000 jobs by 2023 in Malaysia alone.

It said these ambitious growth targets will drive demand for talent for both IT development and enterprise.

With more jobs than the supply of talent in the market, companies are fiercely competitive in their talent attraction strategies, it said.

Randstad said the technology sector records some of the highest pay increments in Malaysia, which is unsustainable in the long run, especially for early-stage start-ups that are in dire need of talent.

It said supply chain congestion has slowed manufacturing activities in Malaysia, adding that as it happens, manufacturers are already actively expanding their workforce to fulfil backlogs and new orders.

“As more manufacturers build more facilities in Malaysia to meet global demands, we will see more hiring at the senior level for plant managers and heads of production,” it said.

Randstad Malaysia country director Fahad Naeem said many global companies are cutting back on recruitment activities because of record-high inflation to focus on budgetary controls. However, some may be shifting their sights to Malaysia as part of their business transformation and restructuring, which will create new job opportunities for the local talent.

“Change is crucial to thriving in Asia’s rapidly evolving business landscape. With people serving as the backbone of any organisation’s success, business leaders learn to address employee expectations for more effective talent attraction and management efforts.”

Meanwhile, Randstad’s Workmonitor survey revealed that 85% of Malaysians said that it is important for employers to offer learning and development training programmes, but only 36% of respondents said that they received new training in the past year.

The same survey highlighted that 61% of employees in Malaysia want to develop their technical skills so that they can be more capable and productive.