The relationship between demographic factors and the participation of foreign workers

Abstract

Malaysia is one of the countries which allow the entry of foreigner workers with the majority of them required to cater for labor shortages in various sectors of employment. Reports from the Ministry of Home Affairs (KDN) recorded a higher involvement of foreign male registered labor force as compared to foreign female registered labor force in the country. In previous studies, demographic factors such as strata, gender, marital status, educational achievement and age are influenced by labor force participation in Malaysia. Since these factors exhibit significant impact on the labor force participation, this study is conducted to examine the relationship between demographic factors and labor force participation by focusing on foreign workers in Malaysia. An initial analysis based on the Ministry of Home Affairs data indicates an increase of foreign labor participation in Malaysia spanning from the period 2000 until 2015. The rate of labor force participation among foreigners based on demographic factors by specific categories is conducted every three years based on Labor Force Survey data (LFS) spanning from the period 2003 until 2015 which allows us to conduct this research. Since demographic factors and labor force participation are categorical data, a chi-square independence test is deemed appropriate to determine the relationship between these two factors. The results of the chi-square independence test show that there is no relationship between gender and labor force participation among foreigners in each year of the study period. However, for certain years, other demographic factors indicate a significant relationship with labor force participation among foreigners. These significant findings exclude strata and marital status in 2003, educational attainment factors in 2009 and age in 2006. The results suggest that there is a relationship between demographic factors and labor force participation among foreigners in Malaysia in certain years.