Dataset Card for Malaysian Tech Disparity Analysis
Dataset Details
Dataset Description
A comprehensive longitudinal dataset (2015-2025) analyzing ethnic disparities in Malaysia's technology sector, covering:
- Intergenerational mobility metrics
- Wage gaps across 12 tech subsectors
- Digital literacy scores by state
- Automation risk assessments
Key Features:
- 428,000+ anonymized records
- District-level geocoding
- EPF-verified salary data
- Bumiputera subgroup granularity (Malay, Orang Asli, Sabah/Sarawak natives)
Example Research Questions:
- How do Chinese-Malay wage gaps vary between AI and traditional IT roles?
- What's the correlation between digital literacy and intergenerational mobility?
- Which states show the fastest narrowing of tech access disparities?
Dataset Sources
- Curated by: Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) Analytics Team
- Funded by: Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI)
- Primary Sources:
- Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) microdata
- EPF wage records (2015-2025)
- MyDigital Literacy Census
- Repository: [Hugging Face Dataset Link]
- License: Apache 2.0 (commercial use permitted with attribution)
Uses
Direct Use
- Policy analysis for digital inclusion programs
- Corporate DEI benchmarking
- Academic research on labor economics
- Predictive modeling of automation impacts
Out-of-Scope Use
- Individual-level discrimination claims
- Automated hiring decisions
- Political redistricting (geographic precision limited to districts)
Dataset Structure
Core Tables:
demographics- Ethnicity and population sharesmobility- Intergenerational education/income mobilitywages- Tech sector compensation by roleskills- Digital competency assessments
Field Examples:
{
"ethnicity_id": 2, # Chinese
"state": "Selangor",
"job_role": "Data Scientist",
"median_salary": 12500.00, # MYR
"automation_risk": 18.7, # Percentage
"digital_literacy": {
"basic_skills": 82.1,
"ai_competency": 34.5
}
}
Splits:
train(2015-2023): 380K recordstest(2024-2025): 48K recordsvalidation(random 5% sample): 21K records
Dataset Creation
Curation Rationale
Created to support Malaysia's 12th Plan (2021-2025) goal of reducing ethnic disparities in tech sector participation by 30%.
Source Data
Collection Methods:
- Wage Data: Aggregated from EPF contributions with industry coding
- Skills Data: Proctored assessments at 126 testing centers nationwide
- Mobility Data: Longitudinal household surveys (N=15,000 families)
Processing Pipeline:
graph TD
A[Raw EPF Data] --> B[Anonymization]
C[Survey Responses] --> D[Geocoding]
B --> E[Industry Classification]
D --> E
E --> F[Quality Control]
F --> G[Parquet Export]
Annotations
Salary Gap Flags:
- Annotated by MDEC economists using threshold of >15% below sector median
- Inter-rater reliability: κ = 0.82
Ethnicity Coding:
- Validated against National Registration Department categories
- 99.3% consistency with self-reported identity
Bias, Risks and Limitations
Known Biases:
- Geographic Coverage: East Malaysia samples 23% smaller than population share
- Freelance Workers: Underrepresented in formal wage records
- Age Bias: Gen Z (18-24) coverage begins only in 2020
Mitigation Strategies:
- Clear documentation of coverage gaps
- Sample weighting variables included
- Partnered with Grab/MYWork to supplement gig economy data
Recommendations
- For Researchers: Use provided sample weights for national estimates
- For Policymakers: Cross-validate with DOSM's granular household surveys
- For Companies: Combine with internal HR data for DEI analysis
Citation
BibTeX:
@dataset{mdec_tech_disparity_2025,
title = {Malaysian Technology Sector Disparity Analysis 2025 Edition},
author = {MDEC Analytics Team},
year = {2025},
publisher = {Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation},
version = {3.1.0},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/MDEC/Tech-Disparity-MY}
}
APA: MDEC. (2025). Malaysian Technology Sector Disparity Analysis [Data set]. https://huggingface.co/datasets/MDEC/Tech-Disparity-MY
Glossary
- B40/T20: Income percentile groups (Bottom 40%/Top 20%)
- MyDigital: National digital literacy certification program
- GIGIS: Government Integrated Geographic Information System (used for geocoding)
Dataset Card Authors
- Kurnia Kadir
Dataset Card Contact
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