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Malaysia: Jobless rate declines in September
PETALING JAYA: The country’s jobless rate fell marginally to 4.6% in September 2020, although the number of unemployed persons remains elevated with over 700,000 individuals hunting for jobs.
According to the chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin, the domestic labour force continues to see a recovery amid the challenges to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
The number of unemployed in Sept 2020 fell by 0.6% month-on-month to a record 737,500 persons.
This compares with 741,600 persons in August 2020, based on the latest Labour Force Survey.
“On the contrary, employment continued to increase, where employed persons rose 0.3% (Aug 2020: 0.5%) to 15.19 million persons mainly in the manufacturing and services sector.
“Nevertheless, a decline in employment was observed in the agriculture and construction sectors of which this may reflect shortages of labour supply in both sectors.
“The employment-to-population ratio for Sept 2020 remained at 65.2%, ” said Uzir in a statement yesterday.
Following the overall rise in employment in Sept, the total number of employed individuals rose by 14.9 thousand persons to record 11.73 million persons as against the previous month.
Own-account workers encompassed about 2.43 million persons, increased by 0.7% as against August 2020.
Meanwhile, there were 100,700 employed persons who were temporarily not working compared to 102,000 persons recorded in August 2020.
The Statistics Department has clarified that this group of persons, who were most likely not able to work, was not categorised as unemployed as they had work to return to.
As for the labour force, the size grew by 0.2% to a total of 15.93 million persons in September 2020.
The labour force participation rate (LFPR) remained at 68.4%.
The Statistics Department said the loss of employment statistics reported by the Social Security Organisation fell by 20.2% or 1,873 persons to 7,388 persons in Sept 2020.
“Likewise, the retrenchment numbers reported by the Labour Department also showed a declining trend.
“As for MYFuture Jobs, a total of 58,607 vacancies were reported in the Employment Insurance System as of Sept 2020, compared to 49,811 jobseekers, ” the department added.
Commenting on the labour supply situation in the third quarter, Mohd Uzir said the unemployment rate fell to 4.7% from a high rate of 5.1% in the first quarter.
“The lower rate attributed by the resumption of almost all economic sectors including social, educational and religious activities.
“In addition, domestic tourism activities also have revived gradually following the permissions of inter-state travel during the quarter.
“Hence, the employed persons increased 1.4% to 15.1 million persons during this quarter, particularly in the services, manufacturing and construction sectors.
“The LFPR improved 0.3 percentage points to 68.4% with male and female posted a rate of 80.5% and 55.3% respectively, ” he said.
However, despite the improvement in the unemployment rate, Uzir said the labour force has not reached the normal level prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He also cautioned that the labour market would face more challenges in the forthcoming months, considering the spike in new Covid-19 cases in certain parts of the country since the end of Sept 2020.
“In relation to the labour force statistics up to Sept 2020 and the current scenario, the Statistics Department has revised the forecast of unemployment rate for 2020 ranging 4.4% to 4.7% as against the earlier forecast of 3.5% to 5.5%.
“With this revised rate, the forecast number of unemployed for the year 2020 will be in the range of 701,000 to 729,000 persons, ” he said.
Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2020/11/10/jobless-rate-declines-in-september