Malaysia achieved dramatic economic growth through foreign investment in the
industrial sector from the 80s. This led to the creation and expansion of employment opportunities
in multi-national companies and factories built mostly on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
People started to be employed full-time or part-time in the industrial sector located in rural or urban
areas. In the rural area this has created great impact on the employment structure of the traditional rice
farming villages. It is possible to assume a deagrarianization process in villages which lie closely
connected to the impact of industrialization. The impact of industrialization might have caused
deagrarianization of the traditional employment structure, especially among paddy farmers in the west
cost of Peninsular Malaysia.
This paper aims to examine the actual changes and influential factors in employment
structure, based on a case study in Kampung Permatang Tinggi Bakar Bata, Sebrang Prai. A survey
was conducted in 2006 among 42 Malay paddy farmers and 58 workers using a structured
questionnaire. Kampung Permatang Tinggi Bakar Bata, Sebrang Prai is located in one of the main
rice granaries and is adjacent to the industrial zone in the north of Penang. In order to discriminate
types of job, quantification method type II was used in the analysis to discriminate outside variables
by qualitative data. The results of the study indicated that there was a clear change in employment
structure among the paddy farmers. The number of full-time farmers decreased and the number of
part-time farmers increased in this area from the 1980s to 2000s. The study also revealed that age
was the most important factor in choosing between on-farm and off-farm work, and between full-time
and part-time work in the study village.