Chief statistician Uzir Mahidin said this reflected the improving economic developments throughout the quarter, with the labour force participation rate rising 0.6% year-on-year, maintaining a high rate of 70.1% compared to the previous quarter.
“The labour force increased by 2.2% to record 16.9 million people in Q4, primarily driven by the 2.5% rise in employed people,” he said in a statement.
Uzir said higher domestic demand has created a favourable environment for industries, resulting in increased production due to the expansion of the economy of nearly all sectors.
“This eventually contributed to a strengthened demand for labour despite the challenging external environment.
“Malaysia’s economy grew by 3% in Q4 2023, slightly lower than the 3.3% from the preceding quarter,” he said.
On underemployment, Uzir said the number of people (286,100) working fewer than 30 hours a week increased by 6.6% compared to Q4 2022.
On the other hand, skill-related underemployment – or people with tertiary education in semi-skilled and low-skilled occupations – increased by 2.4% year-on-year to 1.94 million or 37.4%.
Meanwhile, he said, Malaysia’s labour demand continued to improve during the quarter, indicated by 0.6% growth in the number of jobs created to meet industry needs, encompassing 31,100 jobs.
On the overall performance of the labour market for 2023, Uzir said preliminary estimates, based on monthly average data, showed that the number of people in employment increased by 6% to 16.3 million (2022: 3.1%; 15.4 million).
Despite facing external challenges in 2023, labour demand strengthened as jobs in the economic sector increased to 8.94 million.
“A total of 126,500 jobs were created in 2023, surpassing the figures recorded in 2022 (116,700) and 2021 (69,500),” he said.
Uzir said Malaysia’s economy is expected to improve in 2024, driven by resilient domestic expenditure and recovery in external demand.
Under those circumstances, he said, the labour market is expected to remain stable in the upcoming quarter, corresponding to the current economic developments and technological advances resulting from high-value investments.