Keanjalan Buruh-Output dan Keperluan Pekerja Asing dalam Sektor Pembuatan di Malaysia

The objective of this article is to analyze labour-output elasticity of foreign workers for the whole manufacturing sector and by the selected manufacturing sub-sectors in Malaysia. Based on the value of the elasticity, projection of foreign workers requirement in year 2020 is made. Foreign workers are classified into three categories; professional foreign workers (management, professional and executive level), technical foreign worker (technical and supervisory level) and general workers (clerical, production operators and other general workers). The analysis is based on data of Industrial Manufacturing Survey from the Department of Statistics Malaysia at 5 digits levels according to the Malaysian Standard Industrial Classification (MSIC) for the period of 1990-2010. The Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) method is used to estimate the demand for foreign workers models by three job categories. The study finds that the elasticities of labour-output for the whole manufacturing sector are positive for all job categories of foreign workers but the results vary by subsectors. The projection of the foreign workers for 2020 demonstrates that the professional foreign workers, technical foreign workers and general foreign workers are expected to increase by 10.5 percent, 8.3 percent and 10.0 percent respectively. The implication from this finding is that the government has to increase the supply of local labour for these three categories that tailored to the requirement of the manufacturing sector to lessen the dependency on foreign workers.