Contents

1.0 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 2

2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT ................................................................................................ 3

3.0 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .............................................................................................. 3

4.0 RESEARCH AIM ............................................................................................................. 3

5.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................. 3

6.0 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................ 4

6.1 SCOPE OF RESEARCH ............................................................................................. 4

6.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................................... 4

7.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................... 6

8.0 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 7

9.0 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 8

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LACK INVOLVEMENT OF LOCAL LABOR IN MALAYSIA CONSTRUCTION
INDUSTRY

Keywords: local labor, Malaysia, construction industry, participation

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The construction industry in Malaysia has its ups and downs. During those ups and downs
there are many problems that we encounter which one of it is the insufficient of labors in the
industry which then we tried to encounter by bringing in foreign labor. Why foreign labor?

This is because the lack of labor in our construction industry is due to reason of lack
of involvement by local labor in construction industry (Ahmad Zaki et al., 2012). Truth to be
told, this issue is not particularly happened in Malaysia but worldwide including United States,
United Kingdom, Canada, India, and Bahamas (Ahmad Zaki et al., 2012). Not just that, it is
said that the labors that had been trained in our vocational schools are not meeting the
requirement for the industry (Ahmad Zaki et al., 2012).

Besides that, Mohd Najib (2019) said that the number of local labors we have are not
just low, but are decreasing in a worrying way. Because of this, our construction industry now
are mostly dependent on foreign workers which resulted to arises of various problems (Mohd
Najib et al., 2019)

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2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Dependency on foreign labors in our construction industry is not something new and we can
say that we actually depending on them quite heavily (Ahmad Zaki et al., 2012). Ahmad Zaki
(2012) also stated that in our construction industry, recruiting local workforce as labors could
be consider as a huge feat.

Besides that, we also need to face the problem of our local labors that are having poor
workmanship and skills (Abd. Karib et al., 2014; Mohd-rahim et al., 2016; Mohd Najib et al.,
2019). We may out sourcing to fill in the demand for labors in our industry but this would only
solve the issue for a short period of time and it may even create a new problems in the future
concerning immigrants (Ahmad Zaki et al., 2012).

Mohd Noh (2017) stated that 93% of foreign workers are unskilled while there are only
16% skilled local workers. Most of our local labors lack training and skills and the failure of our
industry to train invest on training them could bring a huge effect on our industry (Mohd Noh,
2017). The same conclusion is made by Mohd-rahim (2016).

3.0 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What are the reasons for the low involvement of local labors in Malaysia construction
industry?

2. What are the incentives that has been taken to overcome the problem?

3. What is the best solution to this problem?

4.0 RESEARCH AIM

To identify the reasons for the lack of local labors in Malaysia construction industry.

5.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1. To identify the reasons for the low involvement of local labors in Malaysia construction
industry.

2. To identify the incentive that has been taken to overcome this problem.

3. To identify the best solution for this problem.

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6.0 METHODOLOGY
6.1 SCOPE OF RESEARCH
This research concerns about the low involvement of local labors in construction industry in
Malaysia. For the purpose of this research, the area of the research will be focused mainly in
Perak area.

This is because aside from Kuala Lumpur, the cities in Perak can also be considered
as developing cities. The number of construction project can be said on par with other states
in Malaysia. Because of this there will be a lot of contractors exist in this state that could be
made as research subject.

Reasonable amount of contractors with specific grade will be randomly picked as the
subject for the data required to finish the research. Besides that, past research and articles
will be used for references and ideas which will be taken from a specific range of years to
ensure the points are still relevant to be used and applied.

6.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The data gathering will be more focused on questionnaire. The research will try to emphasize
on both quantitative and qualitative approach. The sample will probably be picked by using
random sampling method.

Besides that, literature review will also be used to come up with ideas for the research.
Literature review will be more focused on a range of years to ensure that the ideas and data
is not outdated and unreliable anymore.

Later on, the data will be analyzed using the suitable method. With the data that has
been analyzed, conclusion will be made based on it and recommendation will be made with
an accordance to the research objectives.

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 Deciding on Topic

Stating the
Problems

Decide on the Aim

and Objectives

Prepare Literature
Articles and Journals Researches and etc.
Review

Data Collection

Questionnaire

Analyze Data

Recommendations
and Conclusion

Figure 1

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7.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
Construction industry is deemed as one of the most important industry in Malaysia as it
contributes to a lot of things such as creating job opportunities and career vacancy for the
locals (Mohd Noh, 2017). This is because construction industry is made up of many workforce
such as contractors, labors, architects, engineers, suppliers, manufacturers and surveyors
(Mustafa Kamal et al., 2012).

The truth is, because of how our construction industry has been rapidly growing, labors
are one of the most important player in this industry (Mohd-rahim et al., 2016). Somehow,
based on Mustafa Kamal (2012), even though our country consists of millions people, yet we
still rely heavily on foreign labors.

Even though Malaysia is rising in its construction industry, ASEAN regions are top
placed in the shortage of skilled labors with Malaysia included in it (Mohd Noh, 2017). Ahmad
(2012) said that besides heavily relying on foreign labors, it is known that most of these labors
are basically unskilled which means that most of them need assistance while working thus not
meeting the industry requirement. Even though we have almost 2 million of foreign labors, we
are still having labor shortage in this industry (Jaafar, 2016).

Based on Mohd Najib (2019) and Mohd-rahim (2016), the purpose of his research is
to identify the culture of our labor workforce, finding the reasons for the lack of local
participation as labor in the industry and searching ideas for how to bring them in to join the
industry as skilled local labors. Almost the same thing can be say about Ahmad Zaki (2012),
where the research is about exploring the issue surrounding our lack of local labors and to
identify how serious the problem is.

Mohd Najib (2019) findings shows that the reasons that we are having low participation
of locals as skilled labors in our construction industry are the rate of wage that is low, the
demand for local labor also seems to be low, flooded by migrants, dangerous, difficult and
dirty which known as the 3D factors, the way of thinking that it is not suitable for people with
high education and a few others. These findings are also in match with other researches
findings such as Ahmad Zaki (2012) and Mohd-rahim (2016).

Some other reasons for our lack of local labors are the poor images that we have on
our construction industry and not to forget the lack of skills and training that our local labors
have (Mohd-rahim et al., 2016). Besides that, some other findings are that the reasons for our
lack of local labors are because of the perception of the people that becoming a labor as a
poor career path and unattractive job. Another reasons is because of the poor working
environment and factors of the economy (Ahmad Zaki et al., 2012).

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 Because of all those reasons above, solutions are needed to overcome those
obstacles. Such as for that are increasing the minimum wages, increasing and prioritizing
more on workplace safety practice and procedure, incentive programs, education & training,
enforcement of policy, improving working conditions, a better governance structure,
recruitment policies and non-monetary compensation. With the increases on the minimum
wages, it could attract the local more while making the use of foreign labors as not economical
anymore (Mohd Najib et al., 2019). Besides that, because of the rapid growth that our industry
has been having, it makes that the skills that the industry is demanding becomes quite high
and our training institution seems unable to catch up with the demand (Ahmad Zaki et al.,
2012). Because of this, to solve the problems CIDB has established 6 training centres and
accredited 40 private training centres solely to train existing labors and new labors (Abd. Karib
et al., 2014).

8.0 CONCLUSION
To conclude, we need to look at the cause of the lack involvement of our locals as
labors/workers in our construction industry and find ideas to solve these issues so that we can
fully maneuver our own workforce instead of relying on foreign workers (Ahmad Zaki et al.,
2012). We need to focus on training and improving the skills of our local labors so that they
can reach the end meets of our construction industry and not to forget to enhance our safety
practice and procedure in construction (Saleh, 2008).

In addition to the lack of skill, Mohd-rahim (2016) also emphasize on the unattractive
and poor images of construction works and the low wages received by labors. Not to mention
about the 3D which is dangerous, dirty and difficult being one of the reason we lack locals
especially youngsters (Mohd Najib et al., 2019).

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9.0 REFERENCES

Abd. Karib, S. et al. (2014) ‘Meeting Construction Industry Resources Requirements’, in 20th
AsiaConstruct Conference Hong Kong.

Ahmad Zaki, S., Mohamed, S. F. and Mohd Yusof, Z. (2012) ‘Construction Skilled Labour
Shortage – The Challenges in Malaysian Construction Sector’, (July 2016).

Jaafar, M. Y. (2016) ‘Kerajaan beri perhatian kekurangan tenaga kerja’, 17 May. Available at:
https://www.utusan.com.my/berita/nasional/kerajaan-beri-perhatian-kekurangan-tenaga-
kerja-1.327019.

Mohd-rahim, F. A. et al. (2016) ‘The challenge of labour shortage for sustainable construction’,
(V), pp. 77–88.

Mohd Najib, I. Z. et al. (2019) ‘Malaysian as the Component of Labour Force for Construction
Industry in Malaysia’, in.

Mohd Noh, N. H. (2017) EMPLOYABILITY OF LOCAL TRAINED SKILL LABOUR IN

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY. Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia.

Mustafa Kamal, E. et al. (2012) ‘The Critical Review on the Malaysian Construction Industry’,
Issn, 3(13), pp. 2222–1700. Available at: www.iiste.org.

Saleh, S. (2008) CAUSES OF POOR PARTICIPATION OF LOCAL WORKERS IN MALAYSIA

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVEMENT. University
Technology Malaysia.