Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng says reports of him claiming the state will not experience any of the job losses were inaccurate. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — Penang will not be fully spared from the 50,000 retrenchments predicted by employers this year, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng clarified today.

Lim said reports of him claiming the state will not experience any of the job losses were inaccurate.

“What I meant is that any worker retrenchments in Penang will not affect Penang, because there will be more jobs chasing workers than worker chasing jobs.

“Penang has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the Malaysia at 2 per cent.” he said in a statement.

Lim added that retrenchments were part of ordinary business, but said firms in the state were still actively recruiting for some 20,000 vacancies.

The Malaysian Employers Federation predicted on Wednesday that between 30,000 and 50,000 workers would be retrenched this year due to economic conditions and new regulations such as a mandatory work insurance scheme introduced this month.