THERE has been an increase in job advertisements by 143.2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2021 (4Q21) to 190,436 from 78,303 positions, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

Although it was the highest on a monthly basis where December recorded 76,193 positions followed by October (73,230) and November (41,013), it was slightly lower than the figure (192,480) recorded in the previous quarter.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the number of job advertisements have doubled from 221,384 jobs in 2020 to 536,636 in 2021.

“Most jobs advertised online in 4Q21 were for professional category workers (43.1%), followed by technicians and associate professionals (18.4%), and managers category workers (12.6%).

“By ranking, the top five most popular jobs offered during the reference period are advertising and marketing professionals, administrative associate professionals, MDs and CEOs, accountants and auditors, and software developers,” he said in a statement yesterday.

The services and manufacturing sectors have the highest demand in 4Q21 with the top three service sub-sectors being wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles, professional, scientific and technical, and financial and insurance or takaful activities.

Mohd Uzir also noted that technician, graphic designer, software engineer, project manager and site supervisor were the top five science, technology, engineering and mathematics jobs during the period while advertising and marketing professionals, administrative associate professionals, software developers, administrative professionals and general office clerks were the top five jobs under the technical, vocational education and training category.

Due to the IR4.0, digitisation-related jobs were not popular but their demand is increasing rapidly.

Bernama

“Digitisation-related jobs such as data scientist, digital marketing professional and social media showed a significant increase in 3Q21 and 4Q21.

“In 4Q21, the number of vacancies advertised online for digital marketing executives was 1,465, an increase of 672 (84.7%) from 793 recorded in 4Q20,” he mentioned.

In 3Q21, the total number of job advertisements in this category totalled to 1,705 positions while vacancies for social media executives and data scientists have recorded an increase in 4Q21 to 324 and 128, respectively, compared to 236 and 79, respectively, in the corresponding period.

Kuala Lumpur has the highest job advertisements (80,478) compared to Selangor (34,050), Johor (14,470), Penang (8,221) and Melaka (3,668).

“The increase in vacancies advertised online in 3Q21 and 4Q21, mainly services and manufacturing, gives a positive sign of the country’s economic development where the economic sectors are starting to accelerate.

“This is reflected by companies’ efforts to recruit more employees to meet the growing market demand for goods and services,” Mohd Uzir said.

The increasing demand for jobs is also in line with the National Recovery Plan (NRP) which aims to reduce the impact of the pandemic and further restore the national economy.

DoSM published its “Big Data Analytics Job Market Insights and My Job Profile: Job Vacancies Landscape in Malaysia, 3Q21 and 4Q21”, where the insights are based on job vacancies advertised online by popular private recruitment portals.

It also contains information of job vacancies offered by employers from various aspects.