Malaysia is steadily progressing toward an aging population demographic pattern. While aging is a natural process, its impact can be painful individually as well as for the nation. Individually there is a loss of a paying job after retirement, loss of physical and mental fitness, and also occasionally the loss of social integration due to lack of mobility. For a nation, an aging population means a growing dependency ratio, a greater need of care, and more medical facilities for this age group. This article looks at the various economic and social implications of the aging population in Malaysia in general, and in the rural and urban setting specifically. The paper focuses on a research sample of 132 (66 rural, 66 urban) elderly persons. The findings suggest that the demographic patterns of the elderly vary from the rural to the urban setting, with differing issues that need to be addressed to alleviate problems encountered related to loneliness, lack of financial stability, and emotional strain. Policy suggestion will be geared toward providing a solution to problems at hand as well as aiding the working group members to prepare and sustain a comfortable livelihood for the aged in their later years.

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Modernisation and rapid industrialisation has caused not only structural changes in economic aspect but also in the social and political aspect of the Malaysian society. Changes in lifestyle, increase in awareness on individual rights and also the realisation of collective power has begun to change the social and political aspect of society. In all the changes undergone, it is quite often that the rural and urban poor who are marginalised and lag behind in economic advancement. Community development is an important element in pursuing economic progress and also in encouraging active participation of the capable and potential members of society. This article aims to look at the development of community development in Malaysia and the various programmes carried out under the Social Development Programme. Some suggestions are also given as a means to improve future community development programmes

The manufacturing sector plays an important role in Malaysianindustrial development. High growth rates and technology expan-sion in the manufacturing sector resulted in a substantial increasein demand for labor. This process of rapid growth and changes in thedemand for labor were also accompanied by changes in laborstructure and skills. At the same time, the range of activities andproducts became more diversified and, correspondingly the compo-sition of manpower sub sectors changed significantly. This studyemployed the input-output Structural Decomposition Analysis (SDA).The analysis computed the compositional manpower change as aresult of decomposition. The result of this study indicates thatsources of labor growth in the manufacturing sector were favored bychanges in the final demand structure. Within the changes in thefinal demand structure, changes in domestic demand structure werethe dominant source of employment growth between 1978 and 1991and the overall period 1978-2000. However, from 1991 to 2000,employment change was due mainly to changes in export structure.Changes in the structure of domestic demand had a relatively strongand increasing effect on service workers, production and relatedworkers, transport equipment operators, laborers, and clerical andrelated workers during the 1978-1991 period. Changes in the exportstructure were the main factor that had an increasing effect on the employment of high skill workers and sales workers. However,during the second sub period of 1991-2000, manpower growth wasexports structure driven.Keywords: input-output; labor; manufacturing; structural decomposition analysis