KUALA LUMPUR: About 1.95 million tertiary-educated workers in Malaysia are underemployed and working in semi-skilled or low-skilled jobs as of the third quarter of 2024.
According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), this group, whose jobs do not match their qualifications, represents 36.8 per cent of the total tertiary-educated workforce.
It marked a slight increase of around 100,000 workers compared to the previous quarter which was at 36.7 per cent.
This is part of the Labour Force Statistics for September and the third quarter of this year which was released by DOSM today.
Commenting on the overall performance for the third quarter of 2024, Chief Statistician Datuk Sri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said during the quarter, the labour force numbers showed a positive trend, increasing by 0.7 per cent quarter on quarter to 17.26 million persons.
Meanwhile, the number of unemployed persons declined by 1.8 per cent to 547,900 persons.
In terms of the unemployment rate and labour force participation by state, Kedah had the lowest unemployment rate at 1.6 per cent during the quarter, followed by Selangor (1.9 per cent), Pulau Pinang (2 per cent) and Putrajaya (2 per cent).
Selangor posted the highest labour force participation rate at 76.3 per cent, followed by Kuala Lumpur (74.9 per cent) and Johor (71.4 per cent).
On September's statistics, Mohd Uzir said Malaysia's unemployment declined further to 555,300 persons, with an unemployment rate of 3.2 per cent.
Mohd Uzir said following the country's encouraging economic performance, the country's labour market position in September remains strong.
This was illustrated by the increasing number of employed persons, while the number of unemployed persons is declining.
"Therefore, the number of labour force continued to expand in September, with an addition of 0.1 per cent to register 17.24 million persons Accordingly, a higher labour force participation rate was recorded at 70.5 per cent, rising by 0.1 per cent as compared to the previous month.
He added that the number of employed persons continued to be on a positive trend with a month-on-month increase of 0.2 per cent to 16.69 million persons during the month, as against 16.66 million persons in August.
"The number of unemployed persons declined, with a reduction of 0.6 per cent to 555,000 persons. The unemployment rate for Sept 2024 remained at3.2 per cent, as recorded in the previous month," he said.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate among youth aged 15 to 24 increased to 10.5 per cent, in September at 304,200 unemployed youths compared to 303,000 last month.
The unemployment rate for youths aged 15 to 30 fell to 6.3 per cent, recording 420,100 unemployed youths from 428,500 in August.
In the meantime, those who were available for work and were actively seeking jobs or the actively unemployed made up 79.9 per cent of the total unemployed persons.
This category edged down by 0.7 per cent to register 443,500 persons.
By duration of unemployment for the actively unemployed, 62.0 per cent were those who were unemployed for less than three months, while those who were in long-term unemployment for more than a year comprised 6.5 per cent.
Likewise, the inactively unemployed or those who believed that there were no jobs available, posted a decrease of 0.1 per cent to 111,800 persons.
As for the inactive group, the number of persons outside the labour force in September posted a slight decrease of 0.01 per cent to 7.23 million persons.
The major composition for the outside labour force was housework or family responsibilities, accounting for 42.9 per cent, followed by the schooling or training category at 41.1 per cent.