KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 — Total year-on-year jobs in the private sector plunged by nearly a quarter of a million in the second quarter of 2020, the latest Department of Statistics Malaysia’s (DOSM) data showed, as Covid-19 wrought havoc on the economy and forced businesses to cut spending.

The number of private sector jobs stood at 8.38 million, 236,000 less compared to the same period last year. But from the 8.38 million jobs, nearly all were filled. Vacancies stood at just 2 per cent in Q2 2020.

Meanwhile, the sector continues to be labour-intensive, with slightly over 60 per cent of total jobs being semi-skilled.

DOSM reported 12,000 new jobs in Q2 and 64.8 per cent of them were semi-skilled. The total number of skilled jobs created in the period was just 28 per cent.

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Semi-skilled jobs also topped the number of vacancies in the same period. From the 170,000-over vacancies, 54.6 per cent of them were for semi-skilled jobs.

The total number of available skilled jobs in Q2 was less than half, at 23 per cent.

Most of the jobs are in services, which employs up to 4.38 million workers or half of total jobs in the private sector.

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Manufacturing came in second at 2.2 million jobs, followed by construction with 1.2 million jobs.