MEF president Syed Hussain Syed Husman said employers in the plantation, construction, manufacturing and services sectors were experiencing an acute shortage of workers and could not operate at optimum levels without foreign labour.

He told FMT these employers were finding it hard to recruit locals for so-called 4D (dirty, difficult, dangerous and demeaning) jobs.

He was responding to human resources minister M Saravanan’s announcement that the government would give priority to locals to fill job vacancies in various sectors.

But Syed Hussain said Malaysia could not totally depend on the local workforce for some work. “As much as we want to reduce dependence on foreign workers, we cannot hire locals.”

He urged the government to reconsider its intention to extend the freeze on foreign workers.

“While MEF supports the government’s call to reduce dependence on foreign workers, especially low-skilled ones as Malaysia moves towards the adoption of technology and automation, the transition should be well-timed and monitored to reduce disruption to business operations,” he said.

He said the adoption rate of automation and mechanisation was not encouraging due to barriers such as costs and expertise.

“More than 98% of registered companies in Malaysia are SMEs and will require time and resources to adopt new technologies to move up the value chain,” he said.

Carmelo Ferlito, CEO of the Center for Market Education, said the food and beverage and manufacturing industries were struggling to get manpower.

“This is contributing to tensions in prices,” he said, referring to the recent price hike in food items.

He cautioned Putrajaya against intervening in the job market, saying the government, being an agency operating outside the market, was not able to know the supply and demand situations.

“The best way for these things to be discovered is to let the market work,” he added.