Malaysia’s unemployment rate declines to 4.6 pct in August

KUALA LUMPUR: OCT. 8 – Malaysia’s unemployment rate in August declined to 4.6 percent, from 4.8 percent in July, official data showed Friday.

The number of unemployed decreased by 3.8 percent to 748,800 persons in August from 778,200 persons in July, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement

This was the first decline in unemployment after registering increases in June and July 2021, said the DOSM.

Meanwhile, the number of employed persons rose by 0.5 percent month-on-month to 15.38 million persons in August, with the employment-to-population ratio picked up by 0.2 percentage points to 65.2 percent.

“An encouraging labor force situation was observed in August as more economic activities were permitted to resume in compliance with the standard operating procedures. This was indicated by the rise in employment while unemployment decreased during the month,” said the DOSM.

It said that COVID-19 indicators in Malaysia are starting to decrease while the number of vaccinated adults has reached more than 88 percent, thus leading to the reopening of the economy.

This positive movement signals that the performance of Malaysia’s economy will rejuvenate gradually as more businesses are resuming their operation at a greater capacity, it added.

“Although the challenges will remain in the upcoming months due to the uncertain public health situation, the reopening of the economy may partly navigate the country’s economy to progressively recover,” it said.

It also said that the encouraging economic performance may increase labor demand including the creation of more job opportunities in the economy.

“Therefore, the revival of the economy and the labor market is foreseen in stages in the forthcoming months,” it said.

-Xinhua