A cross-sectional study of local worker's participation in Malaysian construction industry

Workers shortage in Malaysian construction industry is due to certain causes such as inadequate and poor level of participation by local workers. The Malaysian construction industry has been forced to rely on foreign workers, mostly from neighboring countries for example Indonesia, Filipina and others. The Malaysian government aimed to reduce the number of foreign workers in the country from 1.84 million in 2005 to 1.5 million by 2010. This dissertation aimed to identify the factors that influenced the participation of local workers in the Malaysian construction industry. This study focused to the contrac­tor organizations in Klang Selangor that registered under CIDB. The aim of this study was to identify the major factor that influenced the poor level of local workers participa­tion in the Malaysian construction industry and strategies implemented in order to improve it. The method of the study involving literature review, data collection and per­centage method was used for analysis and findings. The data were gathered through questionnaires that were sent out. Based on the study, majority of the respondents have agreed of all the variables and the most important factor is low monthly salary. However, there are many strategies that can be implemented in order to successfully overcome this problem.