Publications

Malaysians today stand at the crossroads of history. To go further than ever before, Malaysians need to look beyond economic growth and into strengthening our institutions.

A careful review of the evidence shows that foreign workers are unlikely to have negatively affected short term labour market outcomes in Malaysia. However, for Malaysia to successfully transition into a developed economy, it will need to reduce its dependence on this low-cost structure.

It is important to learn from young men and women themselves what they want out of life and work, how the education and training systems are equipping them for employability and how they fare in their job search and their working conditions—because it is the human resources of the young that will determine Malaysia’s advancement into high-income status. Therefore, a School-to-Work Transition Survey (SWTS) was conducted in Malaysia.

Despite very low measured inflation at the national level, lower income households have been negatively affected by the rising cost of living in the past few years.