KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will focus on high-growth, high-value industries to create skilled jobs and raise wages, despite a lower unemployment rate in 2025.
Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said unemployment fell to 3.0 per cent in 2025 from 3.2 per cent in 2024, while skills-related underemployment stood at 35.6 per cent.
Some Malaysians, including graduates, were working below their qualifications and earning low wages, highlighting a mismatch between skills and jobs, he said in a parliamentary reply.
"The current labour market must be assessed not only based on the unemployment rate but also alongside other indicators, such as the proportion of skilled workers and the skills-related underemployment rate," he said.
Skilled workers accounted for 30.1 per cent of the workforce in 2025.
Under the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP), the government will focus on high growth industries driven by innovation, digitalisation, advanced technology and knowledge-intensive activities to create more skilled jobs with higher wages.
By 2030, skills-related underemployment is targeted to fall to 30 per cent, the median monthly wage to rise to RM3,500 and the proportion of skilled workers to increase to 35 per cent.
The government will also pursue wage increases through the Progressive Wage Policy, the Minimum Wage Order and the living wage initiative.
Cost-of-living measures include RM15 billion in allocations for the Rahmah Cash Contribution and Rahmah Basic Contribution, RM3.1 billion in welfare assistance for target groups, and targeted fuel and utility subsidies.
Other measures include the RM67 million Price Standardisation Programme and the RM600 million Payung Rahmah initiative, implemented through the National Cost of Living Action Council.
Akmal said quota-based fuel subsidies under Budi95 and Budi Diesel would continue at an estimated cost of RM4 billion a month.
He was responding to Mohd Nazri Abu Hassan (PN-Merbok), who asked whether the 3.0 per cent unemployment rate fully reflected labour market conditions if more Malaysians were accepting low-paying jobs or working below their qualifications to cope with rising living costs.
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