Malaysia's labor market expanded in the first quarter, with total jobs rising to 9.23 million, up from 9.06 million a year earlier, according to data released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia on Thursday.
Filled jobs increased 1.8% annually to 9.03 million, while vacancies edged up slightly to 194,800, keeping the overall vacancy rate at 2.1%.
Job creation, however, eased 1.5% to 32,700 positions compared with the same period last year.
By skill level, semi-skilled roles dominated labor demand, followed by skilled and low-skilled categories, while the services sector remained the largest employer across all economic activities, the data showed.