KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — Malaysia has become a more attractive destination for foreigners to relocate for work, reaching 19th position as a desired country in 2020 based on a study conducted jointly by the Boston Consulting Group, global recruitment firm The Network and JobStreet’s owner SEEK Asia.
Malaysia’s attractiveness to global workers jumped from 33rd spot in 2018 and 42nd position in 2014, JobStreet said in a statement yesterday.
Kuala Lumpur’s ranking had also improved, rising to 18th place last year from 52nd in 2014 and 42nd in 2018, the online employment portal said.
Of those who preferred to work in Malaysia, JobStreet said the top 10 countries where they were from were Indonesia, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Yemen, Thailand, China, Syria, Nigeria and Qatar.
The survey also revealed that fewer Malaysians were willing to work abroad now compared with in the previous years.
“Only 40 per cent of Malaysian respondents expressed willingness to work abroad in 2020, down from 65 per cent in 2018 and 67 per cent in 2014,” JobStreet said.
It said those who were willing to relocate to another country for work purposes comprised of students (61 per cent), Malaysians involved in digitisation and automation (56 per cent), and media and information (52 per cent).
It added that Singapore ranked as the top destination for Malaysians who wished to work abroad, followed by Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Japan.
SEEK Asia chief marketing officer Ramesh Rajandran said while most Asian destinations improved their rankings last year in terms of their attractiveness for employment, Malaysia was a clear success story as an employment destination.
“The pandemic has proven to be a key factor that has drastically changed the way global talent think about employment preferences,” he said.
Titled “Decoding Global Talent”, the study was one of the world’s largest surveys, covering 208,805 respondents in more than 190 countries, including 5,649 respondents in Malaysia.
— Bernama
