Published January 19, 2009

45,000 may be out of job during CNY in M'sia

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(KUALA LUMPUR) Some 45,000 workers in the manufacturing sector may temporarily be out of job soon as most factories in the country will cease operations for the Chinese New Year celebrations.

Human Resources Minister S Subramaniam said factories in the manufacturing sector, which would shut down operations for two or three weeks, would ask workers to take leave, either paid or unpaid, depending on their respective employers. 'This (shut down) is because of a drop in demand for their products and because of that they (factories) have to temporarily terminate their workers,' he told reporters after opening the Agro Explosion 2009 Seminar & Workshop here yesterday.

He said that as at Jan 12 this year 14,000 workers from various sectors had lost their jobs because of the world economic slowdown, but that there were some 15,000 job vacancies in various sectors registered at the ministry. -- Bernama