20,000 MALAYSIANS LOST THEIR JOBS 2015, WORSE IN 2016?

"More than 20,000 employees from various sectors were made redundant as of September last year, the Malaysian Employers’ Federation (MEF) said, pointing to a challenging year ahead for big companies in the country".

With no indication of improvement to the gloomy economic outlook, MEF executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan(photo) said the trend was set to spill over to 2016, which could see more retrenchments and companies ceasing operations.

In 2014, it was reported that there were more than 10,000 retrenchments.

At the same time, Shamsuddin said, hiring slowed significantly this year with only necessary positions filled.

Shamsuddin told The Malaysian Insider that the figure, obtained from the Human Resources Ministry, covered employees from various key sectors, including oil and gas, banking, retail and manufacturing.
MEF, however, said it did not have details on the number of companies involved in retrenchment exercises in 2015. 
“In the Malaysian context, even though the economy is expected to grow by 4.7%, the outlook for most sectors is not very encouraging, and it has been very challenging.
“To be fair also, 6,000 (employees retrenched) was the result of Malaysia Airlines’ (MAS) restructuring and that contributed quite a huge percentage to the total retrenchment (in 2015). 
“By end of 2015, we expected it to touch 25,000 (of total retrenchments). This is expected to continue in 2016 because it is not seen as a positive year,” he said.

Source: The Malaysian Insider...More...