Labour Force in Malaysia, 2020

Employment recorded a marginal increase of 0.5 per cent month-on-month (July 2020: 0.6%) to 15.15 million persons in August 2020.

Employed Person by Status in Employment, July & August 2020

Employees category increased 72.6thousand month-on-month to 11.72million persons in August 2020. Likewise, own-account workers accounted for 2.42 million persons, increased for the first time since April 2020 (July 2020: 2.38 million persons). The share of own-account workers rose 0.1 percentage points as compared to the previous month, registering 15.9 per cent (July 2020:15.8%).

Unemployment Rate 

The unemployment rate in August 2020 remained at 4.7 per cent. The number of unemployed persons decreased marginally month-on-month by 3.5 thousand persons to 741.6 thousand persons (July 2020: 745.1 thousand persons). However, the unemployment rate was higher by1.4 percentage points as against the same month of the previous year (August 2019: 3.3%) with the number of unemployed persons increased by 221.4 thousand persons from 520.2 thousand persons.

Unemployment Rate by Selected Age Groups

Unemployment rate of youth is always higher than the overall and adults. For youth aged15 to 24 years, the unemployment rate dropped 0.2 percentage points to 13.7 per cent (July 2020: 13.9%) while the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 30 years fell 0.8 percentage points to record unemployment rate of 8.9 per cent (July 2020: 9.7%).

Labour Force Participation Rate

In August 2020, the number of labour force increased by 76.6 thousand persons to record 15.90million persons as compared to July 2020. During the month, the LFPR improved 0.3 percentage points to 68.4 per cent (July 2020: 68.1%).

Year-on-year comparison, the number of labour force rose to 189.1 thousand persons (1.2%)from 15.71 million persons in August 2019. Nevertheless, LFPR declined by 0.2 percentage points from the same month of the previous year (August 2019: 68.6%)

Notes:
-Labour force refers to those who, during the reference week, are in the 15 to 64 years (in completed years at last birthday) and who are either employed or unemployed.
-Labour force participation rate is defined as the ratio of the labour force to the working-age population (15-64) years expressed as percentage.
-Source: Department of Statistics, Malaysia