(AFP) Some 90,000 workers could lose their jobs this year if the US economy does not recover, trade union chief predicted today.

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) president Zainal Rampak said the union's records showed an average of 5,000 to 10,000 people lose their jobs monthly.

So far, he said some 10,000 workers in the electronics industry in Penang have been retrenched while another 10,000 employees would be affected by a series of banking mergers.

"My guess is if electronics demand does not pick up and if the US and Japanese economy does not recover in the next few months, 90,000 people across all sectors may lose their jobs this year," he told AFP .

Electrical and electronics goods comprise about 60 percent of Malaysia's exports.

New skills

Almost 21 percent of all Malaysia's exports are to the United States, making it vulnerable to the economic slowdown there.

Most analysts predict the economy will grow by less than half the 8.5 percent rate of last year.

Zainal said employers in the private sector should provide new skills to their workers, instead of retrenching them during hard times.

The MTUC, which represents some 550,000 local workers, last week called for a freeze on the intake of foreign workers in the private sector.

It said there were more than sufficient local workers to take up all available jobs in the country.

Malaysia is home to some 700,000 legal foreign workers mainly from neighbouring Indonesia as well as tens of thousands of illegal immigrants.