The unemployment rate in Malaysia has decreased slightly to 4.8% in February 2021 from 4.9% in January. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, the number of unemployed persons has reduced by 5,000 or 0.6% from 782,500 persons in January to 777,500 persons.

“Those who were unemployed for less than three months accounted for 50.6% of the actively unemployed, while 11.3% of actively unemployed were in long-term unemployment of more than a year,” said Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

The number of actively unemployed persons or persons available for work who were actively looking for jobs has decreased by 9,800 to 647,400 in February from 657,200 the month before. Similarly, employed persons who were temporarily not working in February had reduced to 150,800 persons  compared with 158,900 persons in January.

Meanwhile, the number of employed persons has risen 33,300 month-on-month to 15.27 million in February, maintaining the upward trend for three consecutive months now. “Number of employed persons in the manufacturing and construction sectors stayed positive whereas the agriculture, as well as mining and quarrying sectors, recorded a reduction,” Mohd Uzir said. He added that the number of employed persons in the services sector continuously increased while the tourism industry remained in a decline.

Overall, Mohd Uzir said that in spite of the extension of the Movement Control Order (MCO) and continued inter-state travel restriction, things were gradually improving since early March 2021. With the primary and pre-primary education sectors having reopened alongside the resumption of other economic activities since February, this is expected to encourage more demand in the economy and have a positive effect on the labour market.

(Source: The Sun Daily)

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• Covid-19
• Department of Statistics Malaysia
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• Unemployment
• Unemployment Rate