Number of unemployed persons down to 584,600 in May

KUALA LUMPUR - The number of unemployed persons decreased in May this year by 0.4 per cent to 584,600 persons, compared to 586,900 in April, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Releasing the Statistics of the Labour Force, Malaysia, May 2023 today, DOSM said the unemployment rate in May 2023 stood at 3.5 per cent, unchanged from April 2023.

DOSM said the number in the labour force in May this year continued to record a steady upward trend with an addition of 0.2 per cent to register 16.86 million persons compared to 16.84 million in April.

"May’s labour force participation rate remained at 70 per cent as in the previous month,” it said.

DOSM said a month-on-month comparison showed that the number of employed persons in May 2023 inched up 0.2 per cent to record 16.28 million persons versus 16.25 million in April.

DOSM said the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 years on a month-to-month basis edged down 0.1 percentage points to 11 per cent, recording the number of unemployed youths at 313,000 persons versus 11.1 per cent in April with 315,600 persons.

It, however, said the unemployment rate among youth aged 15 to 30 years had risen by 0.3 percentage points to 7 per cent, with 448,600 unemployed youths in that age range compared to 6.7 per cent in April with 441,000 youths.

The department said the number of persons outside the labour force in May 2023 continued to record a marginal decline of 0.02 per cent albeit the number standing at 7.23 million persons, unchanged from April.

DOSM said as the Malaysian economy is expected to face challenges due to uncertain global economic positions as depicted in the Malaysian Leading Index indicators in April, with the labour market also seen to be facing hinderances.

"Therefore, the labour force is expected to grow at a modest pace in the coming months,” it said. - BERNAMA