A Whole Lot Of Malaysians In Five Sectors Are Expected To Be Laid Off In 2018

It’s only a few days into 2018, and we’ve received some heart-breaking news for employees: The Sun reported that over 50,000 Malaysians will lose their jobs this year.

Furthermore, the Labour Department has also confirmed that 30,000 to 50,000 employees are at risk of being laid off.

There are several sectors that will be affected by the retrenchment such as insurance, banking, retail, construction, and mainly manufacturing.

Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Datuk Shamsudin Baradan told the English daily that there will be several factors that will make the job market more challenging.

Companies are now looking at more attractive and lower labour cost nations to hire.

Among the factors are – levy fee to be paid by employers for hiring foreign workers, the Employee Insurance Scheme (EIS), the increase of maternity leave from 60 to 90 days as well as the possibility of paternity leave, and minimum wage review.

Another main factor would be due to digitalisation or automation where companies are starting to replace people with the usage of robotics and information technology.

In 2016, a total of 37,699 employees were laid off while 30,700 people lost their job as of September 2017.

Guess it’s true what our ministers have been saying… we need to do two jobs to be more financially stable in this economy.

Time to look for a Plan B and prepare for the worst, fellow Malaysians.