| This dissertation examines the female employment patterns in the Malaysian service sector and the influence of employment on migration. The research focuses on the female labor force in the service sector, the development of the service sector worldwide, theories of female migration, and the application of an individual-level of the Logit model. Based on the gathered statistics, it is suggested that the employment patterns of Malaysian women have shifted from agriculture to manufacturing and services. Women's increasing participation in the service sector is observed worldwide when there is a transition of the economy from a manufacturing to a service-based economy.;The data are accessed from the second-wave of the Malaysian Family Life Survey, New-sample file with 1,967 observations, of whom 748 either never migrated or had intra-district migration and 1,219 who migrated at least once in their lifetime. Available demographic and cultural variables include age, marital status, educational attainment, ethnicity, and rural/urban status of the respondents. The explanatory variables used to study the influence of employment on migration are the interaction between three sectors (agriculture, manufacturing, and service) and five labor force status categories (paid-employee, self-employed, employer, unpaid family worker, and not working). Before estimating the relationship between the explanatory variables and the decision to migrate, steps are taken to avoid sample selection bias by normalizing the non-migrants' age conditional on the migrants' last-move age.;The analysis from the Logit model supports the universal view that demographic and cultural variables affect the decision to migrate. In general, there are different migration patterns amongst women in the three sectors. However, the results in this study indicate that employment patterns in the sectors are not sufficient to determine the migration process. There is a need for additional research to examine other variables deemed important to female migrants. |
