Page 27 - BPAReport

3. At the same time, the jump in education levels leading to higher qualifications
resulted in a shift from jobs in agriculture, construction and labour intensive manufacturing
sectors to increasingly better-remunerated knowledge-based employment in the public and
private sectors. As more women joined the labor force there was also a high demand for the
services of domestic household workers.

4. In 2017, the non-Malaysian citizens’ component of the labour force totalled 2.2
million or 15.5% of the employed workforce in Malaysia (Figure 2).1 The trajectory of
growth in foreign workers has been steady between 2010 and 2017 with a deceleration
observed in recent years. In 2010, there were 1.7 million non-citizen workers constituting
14.1% of the employed workforce.

Figure 2: Employed Persons by Citizenship, 2010-2020

(’000)
16,000.0
2,383.4 2,466.8 2,550.2
14,000.0 2,127.1 2,205.3 2,235.4 (16.0%) (16.2%)
2,120.2 2,110.9 (15.1%) (15.6%) (15.5%) (15.8%)
1,826.0
12,000.0 1,683.2 1,755.6 (14.2%) (15.7%) (15.2%)
(14.1%) (14.2%)
10,000.0
10,216.2 (85.9%) 10,595.8 (85.8%) 10,994.5 (85.8%) 11,425.2 (84.3%)
8,000.0 11,741.7 (84.8%) 11,940.6 (84.9%) 11,958.4 (84.4%) 12,214.6 (84.5%) 12,669.3 (84.2%) 12,954.5 (84.0%) 12,239.7 (83.8%)

6,000.0

4,000.0

2,000.0

0.0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Malaysian citizens Non Malaysian citizens

Source: Labour Force Survey Reports 2010-2017, Department of Statistics Malaysia and
ILMIA estimates.

5. Through June 2018, the largest contingent of foreign workers (those holding
temporary employment passes (PLKS workers)) were from Indonesia representing 39% of
these workers (Figure 3). The next largest group of PLKS workers came from Nepal (22%),
followed by Bangladesh (17%), India (6%) and Myanmar (6%).

1 The Department of Statistics of Malaysia denotes foreign workers to be employees who are non-Malaysian citizens
employed in the formal and also informal sectors. These foreign workers may be persons who hold a valid employment
pass but also include those who do not have valid employment documents. The latter group of workers are referred
to in this report as “undocumented foreign workers”.

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