With the country’s economy expected to slow down in 2016, employees in Malaysia are increasingly concerned about job security. According to the Randstad Workmonitor Year-in-review, the number of Malaysian professionals who have expressed fears of losing their jobs has more than doubled since Q4 2014.
Ryan Carroll, Country Manager for Randstad Malaysia, commented, “With volatility in global financial markets and weakening commodity prices, the Malaysian Ministry of Finance has forecasted in their 2015/2016 Economic Report that gross domestic product growth in 2016 will decrease year on year. This expected slowing of Malaysia’s economy could be one of the reasons why we see more Malaysians being worried about their job security – rising to 13% from 6% in the past year.”
Despite the growing concern, when comparing between Q4 2014 and 2015, a number of Malaysian professionals have expressed confidence in the external job market. Over 7 in 10 (74 percent) employees surveyed are expecting to find a comparable job within six months.
However, this trend does vary in terms of age-groups, with 80 percent of professionals in the 25 to 34-year-old age bracket expressing this confidence, compared to only 56 percent of those between 55 to 64 years old.
According to the Executive Briefing by Scotiabank, the Malaysian economy continues to record solid growth, and despite the deceleration of growth we are likely to see real GDP growth averaging 5 percent year over year in 2015-17.
See: Job insecurity in Malaysia
Economic activity is driven by domestic demand, and despite the GST implementation in April 2015, private consumption is underpinned by rising incomes and sound employment conditions. Investment is supported by private sector outlays in manufacturing and services sectors as well as public infrastructure-related expenditures.
This should compensate for the investment downturn in the oil and gas sector and weaker export sector performance. “This positive outlook for the Malaysia job market was reflected in the percentage of employees who have changed jobs within the past six months. 43 percent of Malaysian employees moved jobs in the second half of 2015, compared to Hong Kong (35 percent) and Singapore (26 percent).
“According to our Workmonitor results, the highest percentage of job change was seen in the transportation (67 percent) and food product manufacturing (63 percent) industries,” added Ryan Carroll.
Job satisfaction has also increased by 4 percent year-over-year, with 75 percent of employees expressing satisfaction with their job. The chemical manufacturing industry in particular came out tops, with 88 percent of employees expressing high levels of job satisfaction.
“Malaysia has been stepping up its R&D and manufacturing capabilities in the life sciences industry in an effort to grow itself as a hub for the Asia-Pacific region. Employers’ efforts in attracting and retaining the best talent in the industry may be attributed to the high levels of satisfaction,” noted Ryan Carroll.
Also read: Malaysia’s Top 10 Talent Trends for 2016
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