Gain valuable insights into Malaysia’s dynamic job market directly from our experts, all captured in the 2025 Job Market Outlook and Salary Guide. This digital report offers analysis of labour market trends, hiring patterns and salary benchmarks across key sectors in Malaysia.
key trends in construction and property job market
Demand for mid-range residential properties drove talent demand in Malaysia, while the growth in the construction industry is aligned with the country’s development. The spectacular growth of data-hungry AI has fuelled major investment in data centres in Malaysia, with the country predicted to become the largest market in the region next year.
There’s also significant ongoing investment in renewable energy, in particular solar, which is ideally suited to a country blessed with plenty of land and sunshine.
While these trends create many opportunities for talent, there is intense competition for skills that the existing talent pool that has built up in residential construction may not adequately supply.
boom in data centres create talent and skills shortages
Demand for data centres in Malaysia is booming as these facilities migrate out of Singapore, with predictions that Malaysia could become the largest market in Southeast Asia by 2026.
Malaysia has positioned itself as an attractive alternative for foreign investment in data centres, offering available land, access to renewable energy, and favourable government policies such as the Green Lane Pathway initiative which streamlines power approvals, reducing lead times to as little as 12 months.
Data centres in Malaysia are largely concentrated in two areas, the Cyberjaya technology park near Kuala Lumpur, and Johor Bahru, which benefits from more land for the largest data centres as well as proximity to Singapore, home to the regional offices of many of the companies making these investments.
While the Malaysian data centre market has been growing for the past couple of years, it was turbocharged by the increase in demand for AI and cloud computing, which require enormous volumes of data processing.
We’re also seeing new tech companies moving to the region, such as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI opening an office in Singapore, which may further increase demand for data centres in countries such as Malaysia.
The residential sector in Malaysia has shifted focus towards affordable housing and mid-range projects in recent years, resulting in a significant pool of architects and civil and structural engineers to support a booming residential market and initiatives like Malaysia My Second Home.
However, data centres require significantly different skill sets, with most of the work focusing on mechanical and electrical engineering.
That has resulted in a major skills shortage in Malaysia, exacerbated by tight timelines of 12 months or less that are inflexible for on-the-job training, meaning most recruiters are looking for candidates who have experience working on data centre projects.
Companies are increasingly looking to foreign talent to address the skills gap for more sophisticated projects. This strategy not only aims to fill immediate needs but also facilitates the transfer of skills, enhancing the capabilities of the local workforce. Additionally, companies are considering candidates with experience in similar construction projects, such as semiconductor plants.
Talent competition seems set to continue over the next few years as more property developers collaborate with companies to move into the data centre market.
solar energy creates job opportunities and hiring demands
Demand for renewable energy continues to increase in Malaysia, driven by consumer demand as well as government incentives.
Solar has emerged as the dominant renewable power source in the country, given plentiful land and year-round sunshine. At the end of 2024, the government was finalising Phase Five of its Large Scale Solar programme, which will fund projects to generate a total of 2,000MW of solar capacity by 2026.
This creates increasing demand for talent with experience working on solar construction projects, who are in relatively short supply in the market. Employers are generally reluctant to hire from other industries as they require talent with the technical know-how to carry out these projects, making competition even more intense.
We’re seeing companies try to offer stability, such as contracts that run across multiple project teams for a longer period, in order to stand out from other employers. As solar projects come online there is also growing demand for staff who can operate and maintain them, which is a relatively small but increasingly important sector.
in-demand skills, jobs and salary benchmarks in 2025
We expect these roles to be particularly in demand in 2025 to make progress in Malaysia’s property and construction industries:
- Design managers
- Project directors
- Project engineers
- Planning managers
Talent who are switching employers in 2025 can generally expect an increment in the range of 15% to 20%. Those without specialist skills in growth areas such as data centres might expect somewhere in the range of 10-15%, whereas talent with particularly niche skills may be able to command 30% or more.
download randstad malaysia’s 2025 job market and salary trends report
Discover the latest talent insights and salary benchmarks for construction and property jobs, ranging from building information modelling to property development; construction to engineering and more, from our 2025 Job Market Outlook and Salary guide.
The report examines key talent expectations as well as key sector trends and salary benchmarks in the following industries:
- accounting and finance
- construction and property
- human resources
- legal
- manufacturing
- sales and marketing
- shared services
- technology
- contracting
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