Kula: 24,600 laid off up to Sept 30

A TOTAL of 24,600 private sector employees were laid off up to Sept 30, the Dewan Rakyat was told yesterday.

Human Resources Minister M. Kula Segaran said of these, 21,625 involved ordinary termination, while 2,975 employees were in voluntary separation schemes (VSS).

The number of affected employees in the manufacturing sector was 7,944, administration and support services, 7,309; commerce, wholesale and retail, 2,123; financial and insurance activities, 1,748; and, accommodation and food and beverage services activities, 1,049.

Meanwhile, 679 employees in the information and communications sector were affected, he said during the question-and-answer session at the Dewan Rakyat sitting.

Kula Segaran was replying to a question from Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed (PH-Jeli), who asked about the number of employees in all sectors whose services were terminated last year and this year, and the number of jobs that were created this year.

Last year, Kula Segaran said the number of employees whose services were terminated was 23,168, of which 17,236 were ordinary terminations and 5,932 were through VSS.

On the number of jobs created, he said up to August, 50,326 vacancies were registered by employers for the graduate category and 642,798 vacancies for nongraduate posts.

He added that more than 20,000 advertisements for posts in all categories of jobs in the public and private sectors were put up by employers.

“The JobsMalaysia (JMC) portal under the ministry is the official portal for job search and offers,” he said.