A total of 42,807 people nationwide lost their jobs between January and June 12, with business closures and company downsizing accounting for 17,485 cases, or 40.85% of total job losses.
Human Resources Minister R Ramanan said data from Social Security Organisation showed Kuala Lumpur recorded the highest number of job losses at 12,844, representing 30% of the national total, followed by Selangor with 12,360 cases and Johor with 3,468.
Ramanan said there were 605,168 job vacancies advertised on the MYFutureJobs portal during the same period, compared with 188,062 job seekers, including those who had lost their jobs.
Responding to concerns over whether automation and artificial intelligence (AI) were driving retrenchments, Ramanan stressed that AI was not among the six main factors contributing to job losses.
Instead, he said the primary causes were business closures, voluntary separation schemes (VSS) and workforce rationalisation by companies.
“Based on the data, AI is not reducing jobs. In the future, workers need AI skills or risk being left behind,” he said.
Ramanan added that the government views AI as a catalyst for improving job quality and creating new high-skilled employment opportunities, with the Human Resources Ministry taking proactive measures to ensure the transition towards digitalisation and AI adoption does not adversely affect Malaysian workers.
