KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11  -- The labour market is anticipated to remain stable by next year and the unemployment rate is expected to sustain at 3.3% with more job opportunities in the economy.

According to the Economic Outlook 2020 report released by the Ministry of Finance today, the total employed persons are projected to increase to 15.3 million in 2020 contrast to 15.1 million in 2019.

Of the total employment in 2020, about 9.5 million persons or 62.1% will be recruited in the service sector, while 16.2% in the manufacturing sector and 12.2% in the agriculture sector.

Besides, the report said the government continues to undertake initiatives to reduce further the dependency on low-skilled foreign workers.

“As such, on 2 Jan 2019, a new extension levy rate for foreign workers who have served for 10 years or more in the agriculture and plantation sectors was implemented.

“The measure is expected to enable these sectors to move up the value chain while maintaining the ratio of low-skilled foreign workers below 15% of total employment,” the report said.

The report also said that the labour market has remained stable during the first half of 2019 with job vacancies declined 6.9% to 512,504 while the number of job seekers contracted 1.4% to 237,600 persons, of which 3.7 were new registrants.

Meanwhile, the number of retrenched workers remained low at 20,521 persons or 0.1% of total employment.

On the other hand, the number of expatriates increased by 12.1% to 122,192 with majority expatriates were from India (22.7%), followed by China (20.2%), Japan (6.9%) and were mainly employed in the services (52.9%), information technology (31.6%) and manufacturing (5.9%) sectors.

According to the report, labour productivity increased to RM91,793 or 2.5% during the first half of 2019, following various strategies outlined under the Malaysian Productivity Blueprint.

In 2020, labour productivity is projected to reach RM97,000 or expanding at 2.8% due to the growth in services (3.7%), followed by construction (3.4%) and manufacturing (2.6%) sectors.

-- BERNAMA