Thailand
Malaysia: Unemployment rate up slightly to 4.8% in November 2020
KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 11): Malaysia’s unemployment rate rose by a marginal 0.1 percentage point month-on-month to 4.8% in November 2020 with 764,400 unemployed persons, the Department of Statistics Malaysia said today.
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the Conditional Movement Control Order implemented during the month, which saw economic activities continuing to operate with adherence to strict standard operating procedures, resulted in a small decrease in employment while the unemployment rate was slightly higher compared with the previous month.
“Among others, this may be due to job losses and cancellation or freezing of new hires,” he said in a statement today.
Mohd Uzir said the number of unemployed persons rose by 2.2% or 16,200 persons to 764,400 in November (October 2020: 748,200 persons).
The actively unemployed — defined as persons who are available for work and are actively looking for work — went up by 2.3% to 637,700 persons (October 2020: 623,100 persons).
“Likewise, the inactively unemployed or discouraged group who believed there were no jobs available increased by 1.3% to 126,700 persons (October 2020: 125,100 persons),” he said.
Elaborating on the employment situation, Mohd Uzir said the number of employed persons dropped by 11,000 persons to 15.20 million persons in November (October 2020: 15.21 million persons) after recording an upward trend for five consecutive months.
During the month under review, those in the employees category increased by 0.2% (19,600 persons) to 11.78 million persons while own-account workers dropped by 0.6% to 2.41 million persons.
Overall, he said, the growth in labour force was almost flat, with an additional 5,200 persons to 15.96 million persons in November 2020, while the labour force participation rate (LFPR) dropped marginally by 0.1 percentage point to 68.4% (October 2020: 68.5%).
“Meanwhile, the number of persons outside the labour force went up by 0.4% (27,100 persons) to 7.37 million persons (October 2020: 7.35 million persons). Among others, the increase might be due to persons taking a break in job-seeking for family reasons,” he said.
He said with the continuous uncertainty in the economic and health situations worldwide as well as in the country, softer labour demand might continue in December 2020.
“Meanwhile, the labour supply will remain competitive in this challenging situation,” he added.
Source: https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/unemployment-rate-slightly-48-november-2020#:~:text=Unemployment%20rate%20up%20slightly%20to,The%20Edge%20Markets