KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 4): The government recorded more layoffs in the private sector in the first nine months of 2019, compared with the whole of 2018, Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran said today.

Speaking in the Dewan Rakyat, the minister said that based on notification by employers, there were 24,600 lay-offs this year up until Sept 30, 2019, compared with 23,168 in the whole of 2018.

"From the 2019 figure, 21,625 employees (87.9%) underwent normal discontinuation, while 2,975 (12.1%) were involved with VSS (voluntary separation scheme)," said Kulasegaran.

The manufacturing sector was most affected with 7,944 employees involved, followed by administrative and support services (7,309), trading (2,123), finance and insurance (1,748), accommodation and F&B services (1,049), as well as information and communication (679).

In 2018, 17,236 employees (74.4%) underwent the normal discontinuation process whereas 5,932 (25.6%) underwent VSS, he added.

Kulasegaran was responding to a question from Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed (PH-Jeli) on the number of layoffs in all sectors in 2018 and 2019, as well as the number of jobs created in 2019.

Kulasegaran said that up until August this year, private sector job vacancy numbered at 50,326 for the graduate category and 647,979 for non-graduates.

On the development of the gig economy, Kulasegaran said the government is conducting a thorough study on the related laws and regulations, as well as to introduce more initiatives to better encourage the participation of youths.

"We have a problem where there are plenty of job vacancies, but there is no one to take on those jobs," he said.