Penang’s labour market is expected to remain buoyant in the second half of 2017. The labour force participation rate moderated to 69% in 2016, up from 69.9% in 2015; ranking third after Putrajaya (77.6%) and Selangor (74.2%).
Male employment makes up about 58% of Penang’s labour force market; employed persons aged 25-29 years old accounted for the largest share (17.4%), followed by the next age group (30-34 years old) at 16.1%. This shows that approximately one-third of the workforce are young – or Generation Y – workers.
In 2016, employment of tertiary-educated staff constituted 32.6%, an increase of 5.7% from 2015. The share of employment in high-skilled occupations also increased by 3.1%, while employment in both mid- and low-skilled occupations dropped by 1.8% and 1.3% respectively. The services sector continued to record the most workers at 58.4%, followed by the manufacturing sector (32.9%).
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