KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s unemployment rate is still not affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as employment rises 2.1 per cent in February.
This pushed the number of people with jobs to 15.34 million from 15.03 million a year ago, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said in a report today.
During the same period, Malaysia’s labour force increased 2.1 per cent year-on-year to 15.87 million from 15.54 million recorded a year ago.
“The unemployment rate in February 2002 was still unaffected by the internal shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a statement today on DoSM’s February 2020 labour force numbers.
“It is expected to have an impact on the unemployment rate beginning from March 2020,” he added.
Uzir said unemployment rate had edged up to 3.3 per cent in February from 3.2 per cent in January this year.
“The number of unemployed accounted for 525,200 persons in February 2020, an increase of 1.7 per cent from 516,400 persons in February 2019. For January 2020, the unemployment rate rose 2.6 per cent to 511,700 persons,” he added.
According to DoSM, 31.3 per cent of working population aged between 15 year and 64 years were outside the labour force, comprising housewives, students, retirees and those not interested in working.