Malaysian economic transformation programme (ETP) and pattern of job flows in manufacturing sector: 2005-2015

Abstract

Economic transformation is vital for a country. In addition to helping to boost the economy, economic restructuring also affects market workers especially in terms of unemployment. However, the unemployment rate in Malaysia at an average of 3 per cent annually reflects that the restructuring has not to affect labour. Therefore, this study aims to study the pattern of job flow due to economic transformation undertaken by the Malaysian government in 2010. Descriptive analysis shows that there exists job reallocation in the Malaysian manufacturing sector from 2005 to 2015, and it was dominated by the pattern of job creation rather than job destruction, for the whole manufacturing sector or at the technological level. Based on the results of this study, this paper proposes the Malaysian government and policymakers to consider other methods, as well as the unemployment rate to analyse the labour market performance. This study proposes the use of job flow method as one of the labour market indicators in the economy.