Malaysia’s unemployment rate for January 2022 has remain unchanged at 4.2% since the previous month, according to the latest labour report of the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM). However, the number of unemployed persons within the country showed some decline, dropping by 1.1% from 687,600 individuals in December 2021 to 680,400 in January 2022.

“The labour force situation continued to improve in January 2022, led by the continuous rise in employment while unemployed persons trended down,” said the chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin in a statement.

The report also noted that out of the total number of unemployed persons in January 2022, 83.7% were classified as actively unemployed, described as individuals who are unemployed but are actively looking for jobs. This is a decline of 1.2% from December 2021, from 576,500 persons to 569,500 persons. Of these, 56.3% were unemployed for less than three months, and 7.5% were unemployed for more than a year. The inactively unemployed, too, reduced by 0.2% to record 110,900 persons, as compared to 111,100 persons in December 2021.

As for the number of employed persons, DOSM said that the labour force in January 2022 remained positive with an addition of 30,200 persons (0.2% month-on-month increase) to register 16.37 million persons. The employees category encompassed 76.7% of the employed persons group, posting a month-on-month increase of 0.1% from December 2021. This totals to 12.03 million persons, in comparison to December’s 12.02 million persons.

The own-account workers category, meanwhile, made up 16.9% of the total employed persons group – showing an increase of 0.6% since the previous month to register 2.66 million persons. Finally, the remaining number of employed individuals fell under the unpaid family worker (3.1%) and employer (3.3%) categories.

Moving forward, Datuk Seri Uzir said that he expects the unemployment rate to further improve in the following months. “A healthier economic outlook is anticipated in the months ahead, reflecting by the Leading Index, which was continuously above 100 points and rising in December 2021. This positive outlook will lead to the increase in business activities, thus creating more labour demand in the economy. Creation of more job opportunities will encourage more labour participation, hence fostering the labour market to be more vibrant in the forthcoming months,” he said.

(Source: DOSM [1, 2])

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• Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin
• Department of Statistics Malaysia
• DOSM
• Malaysia Unemployment Rate
• Unemployment
• Unemployment Rate