Malaysia’s labour market sees improvements

Illustrative image (Photo: malaymail.com)

Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysia’s labour market continued to see improvements in 2022 with the unemployment rate dropping to 3.9 % and a higher employment rate, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Chief Statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the positive economic environment throughout 2022 led to a favourable labour force situation last year, with the creation of more job opportunities in various industries.

He highlighted that the recovery from the economic recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic reached a turning point in 2023 prompting 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 the previous year, with the number of unemployed persons down by 14% to 630,400 people 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 recorded at 69.3%. The working population was 15.39 million people in 2022, which is an increase of 2.2% compared to 15.06 million in 2021.

He said that in terms of employment status, the working population category was 78.3 % comprising 12.05 million residents while the number of self-employed population covers 15.1% with the involvement of 2.33 million people.

The semi-skilled occupation category had the largest composition of 58.4% of total employment or 8.99 million people, followed by the 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 will continue to boost the recovery in the tourism sub-sector along with the improved market position, especially in the service sector./.