Referring to the Index of Industrial Production (IPI) issued by Malaysia’s Department of Statistics (DoS), the Oxford Business Group (OBG) said that the months of August and September recorded year-on-year (y-o-y) growth, respectively, in overall industrial output.
“The country’s industrial output grew moderately by 3.2% y-o-y in September, compared with 4.9% y-o-y in August, and this is primarily resulting from expansion in the manufacturing and electrical sectors.
“The manufacturing sector grew by a combined 4.0%, according to provisional DoS figures for September, slightly down on the 4.6% posted in August,” the report said.
The highest growth level was for electrical and electronics products, at 6.5%, with petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products, next at 4.4%; and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products, hitting 3.2%.
The IPI data also shows that manufacturing sales grew, albeit slightly, achieving RM58.5 billion, representing a 1.1% y-o-y expansion.
According to OBG, the DoS data also showed a marginal increase in manufacturing sector employment.
In September, the number of workers rose by 0.2% y-o-y to over 1 million, while wages also grew by 7.5% y-o-y. However, the increase in wages could be attributed to the minimum wage being increased from RM900 to RM1,000 since July 1 this year.
The increase in employment is also verified by Monster.com’s latest Monster Employment Index (MEI) for Malaysia.
“According to the MEI, which records trends in online hiring, Malaysia saw a 3% y-o-y decline in e-hiring in August. Though still in negative territory, this represented a 14% increase from July, which declined by 17% y-o-y,” the OBG report said.
Sanjay Modi, managing director for the Asia-Pacific and Middle-East regions at Monster.com, said local employers are also hopeful that recruitment will pick up in the months ahead, with manufacturing one of the sectors set to benefit most.
“This is despite the current uncertain global economic climate and the weakened ringgit.
“The sectors that will likely continue to see the most growth are the IT, manufacturing and retail industries,” Modi said in a statement released by the global online recruitment firm.