Illustrative image (Photo: malaymail.com) Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysia’s labourmarket continued to see improvements in 2022 with the unemployment rate dropping to3.9 % and a higher employment rate, according to the Department ofStatistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Chief Statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidinsaid the positive economic environment throughout 2022 led to a favourablelabour force situation last year, with the creation of more job opportunitiesin various industries.
He highlighted that the recovery from the economicrecession due to the COVID-19 pandemic reached a turning point in 2023prompting positive changes and opening up more jobs in various industries.
He said the unemployment rate in 2022 decreased by 0.7 % to 3.9 % from 4.6 % in theprevious year, with the number of unemployed persons down by 14% to 630,400people compared to 733,000 people in 2021.
According to Mohd Uzir, in 2022, the labour force in Malaysia increased by 1.4%to 16.02 million people while the labour force participation rate was recordedat 69.3%. The working population was 15.39 million people in 2022, which is anincrease of 2.2% compared to 15.06 million in 2021.
He said that in terms of employment status, theworking population category was 78.3 % comprising 12.05 million residents whilethe number of self-employed population covers 15.1% with the involvement of2.33 million people.
The semi-skilled occupation category had the largestcomposition of 58.4% of total employment or 8.99 million people, followed bythe skilled category (29.6%, 4.56 million) and the low-skilled category (12%,1.84 million), he said.
Summing up the overall labour force situation in 2022,he said Malaysia’s economic growth is projected to be more moderate this year.
The increase in the number of tourist arrivals willcontinue to boost the recovery in the tourism sub-sector along with theimproved market position, especially in the service sector./.
