Malaysia had reached an important benchmark in the country’s progress by becoming an ‘ageing society’ in 2020. The percentage of the young age group 14 years and below decreased to 23.3%, while the old population aged 65 and above increased to 7.0% of the total population in 2020. Demographic shifts expected to enlarge the gap between the young aged population and the old aged population as the former group is projected to decline by 18.6% and the latter is expected to increase by 14.5% in 2040. These demographic shifts raise concerns about the sustainability of the labor market in maintaining productivity and growth.

Aging population is directly related to older workers (55-64 years old). The economic contribution of Malaysia’s older workers is an important issue to be studied, as the size of older workers increases from 5.8% in 2000 to 8.7% in 2020. The rapid age change means Malaysia needs to take a long-term view of demographic changes and the impact of older workers in terms of growth and productivity. There is a lack of official long-term forecasting, planning, and assessment related to changing workforce demographics and an ageing workforce.

The main objective of this project is to measure the economic impact of economically untapped productive talent and to propose key strategic actions to promote productivity of the economically untapped talent.