Number of unemployed drops in Malaysia

This was according to the Key Statistics of Labour Force in Malaysia which also said that, consequently, February’s unemployment rate edged down to 4.1% from the 4.2% seen in January.

The number of employed persons rose by 0.3% from January’s 15.69 million to 15.73 million in February, while the number of labour force continued to rise by 0.2% to 16.40 million persons in February from 16.37 million persons previously.

Commenting on the statistics, Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said, “As more business activities resume, it will demand more manpower for operational purposes, thus allowing creation of more job opportunities in the market to sustain the businesses. This situation is seen to have encouraged more labour to enter the labour market.

“This is reflected by the ever-increasing growth rate of the employed persons, as well as the reduction in the number of unemployment which subsequently resulted in the lower unemployment rate during the month,” he said.

In February, 83.7% of total unemployed persons were actively unemployed or those who were available for work and were actively seeking jobs, said Mohd Uzir.

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And out of the total actively unemployed, the number who were unemployed for less than three months made up 56.7%, while 7.3% were those who were in long-term unemployment of more than a year, he said, according to Malay Mail.