PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s labour market is seeing an upward trend following improvement in the country’s economic position, keeping with the expansion of the global economic, according to Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Sri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.
Releasing the Statistics of Labour Force, Malaysia today, he said the labour force in January increased by 0.2% month-on-month to 16.76 million persons (December 2022: 16.73 million persons).
The labour force participation rate during the month remained at 69.8% (December 2022: 69.8%).
The positive scenario was contributed by an increase in the number of employed persons, whereas the number of unemployed persons continued to decrease, said Mohd Uzir.
He added that the employees’ category accounted for 75.7% of the total employed persons in January 2023.
Compared with the previous month, he said this category recorded a marginal increase of 0.1%, reaching a total of 12.24 million persons (December 2022: 12.23 million persons) and a similar trend was observed in the own-account workers, with an increase of 0.6% to record 2.88 million persons.
In terms of economic sector, the number of employed persons in the services sector continued to increase, largely in wholesale & retail trade; food & beverage services; and administration & support. A similar trend of employment was also observed in the manufacturing, construction and mining & quarrying sectors, as well as in the agriculture sector.
Mohd Uzir said, “The majority of the unemployed persons were the actively unemployed or those who were available for work and were actively seeking jobs encompassed 80.8%. This category posted a decrease of 0.5% to 481.6 thousand persons (December 2022: 484.2 thousand persons).” With regard to the total number of actively unemployed, he added, 60.8% were those who were unemployed for less than three months, while 6.4% were those who were in long-term unemployment for more than a year.
Meanwhile, he said those who believed that there were no jobs available or were inactively unemployed decreased by 0.8% to 114.5 thousand persons (December 2022: 115.4 thousand persons).
In the meantime, the unemployment rate for youths aged 15 to 24 years edged down by 0.3 percentage points to record 11.5% (December 2022: 11.8%), registering the number of unemployed youths at 328.8 thousand persons (December 2022: 331.0 thousand persons).
On the contrary, the unemployment rate for youths aged 15 to 30 years rose by 0.1 percentage points to 7.0%, with a total of 449.7 thousand unemployed youths (December 2022: 6.9%; 444.5 thousand persons).
As for the inactivity group, the number of persons outside the labour force in January 2023 posted a decline of 0.02% to register 7.24 million persons (December 2022: 7.24 million persons).
Mohd Uzir said, “In tandem with the transition phase of the country to the endemic and the reopening of international borders, Malaysia is foreseen to be benefitted from the spillover of the increase in the number of tourist arrivals, as well as more productive trade and business activities in Malaysia, which will in turn contributed towards a stable recovery, particularly in the services sector.”
Thus, he added business activity is expected to continue to grow in early 2023, contributing to more job opportunities, hence encouraging more labour force participation in the market and subsequently strengthening the labour market and improving the country’s economic performance. In line with the situation, the labour market position is also anticipated to remain stable and expand in the coming months.
Source: https://www.thesundaily.my/business/malaysian-labour-market-on-uptrend-as-economy-improves-BF10731145