PUTRAJAYA, Sept 7 — The number of jobs in the private sector increased by 145,000 in the second quarter this year to 8.6 million posts compared with 8.5 million in the corresponding period last year, according to Malaysian Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

He said 97.5 per cent or 8.4 million of the posts were filled, with vacancies for 218,000 posts or 2.5 per cent.

Most of the jobs were in the semi-skilled category, totalling 5.4 million or 62.3 per cent of the positions, followed by 24.4 per cent in the skilled category and 13.3 per cent for low-skilled.

In terms of jobs created, the semi-skilled category represents 48.5 per cent  (13,200), followed by skilled category 44.7 per cent and 6.8 per cent for low-skilled category, he said in a statement yesterday.

Mohd Uzir said 51.6 per cent of jobs in the private sector were in the service sector, while 26.3 per cent were in the manufacturing sector, followed by 15.2 per cent in the construction sector, agriculture (5.9 per cent) and one per cent in mining and quarrying.

In terms of job vacancies, he said, 55.6 per cent were in the manufacturing sector, followed by the service sector (20.1 per cent), while for creation post posts, 50.4 per cent were in the service sector, followed by manufacturing (20.8 per cent) and construction (19.6 per cent).

"The mining and quarrying sector recorded the most posts filled, at  99.6 per cent, followed by the service sector 99 per cent and the construction sector 98.3 per cent.

"For the manufacturing and agriculture sectors, the rate of posts filled were 94.7 per cent and 94.0 per cent, respectively,” he said. — Bernama