KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's unemployment rate continues a downward trend to 3.5 percent for the first quarter of this year, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Malaysia recorded 4.1 per cent unemployment rate in the first quarter of last year.
Deputy Minister of Human Resources Mustapha Sakmud said youth unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2023 has also dropped by one percent to 10.1 percent compared to 11.1 percent in the same period the previous year.
He said Sabah reported the highest unemployment rate at 7.7 percent.
He said the high unemployment rate among the youth is a global phenomenon faced by most countries.
"The government continuously formulates and implements various initiatives across ministries and agencies to help reduce the overall unemployment rate, including among urban and rural youth.
"Amongst them are through MyFutureJobs platform with more than a million job vacancies, including 148,000 for professionals," he said in reply to a question from Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kasim (PN-Arau).