Overview

Labour Force

The number of labour force rose marginally by 1.8 thousand persons, as against April 2020 to record 15.71 million persons.

Employed

Employed persons recorded a marginal decline of 0.3 per cent (April 2020: -2.0%) month-on-month to 14.89 million persons. In line with this, employment-to-population ratio which provides information on the ability of an economy to create employment dropped further by 0.4 percentage points to post 64.4 per cent.

Outside Labour Force

Outside labour force recorded inflows of 47.0 thousand persons as against April 2020. This brought the total number to 7.39 million persons. A combination of more than 80 per cent was outside labour force due to housework/ family responsibilities and schooling.

Labour force participation rate (LFPR)

In May 2020, the number of labour force rose marginally by 1.8 thousand persons, as against April 2020 to record 15.71 million persons. Meanwhile, year-on-year, labour force recorded an increase of 71.7 thousand persons (0.5%). The LFPR in May 2020 stood at 68.0 per cent, registering a decline of 0.1 percentage point month-on-month as outflows into outside labour force continued to increase. This was the lowest LFPR recorded since December 2017. In comparison, the lowest LFPR ever recorded was 62.6 per cent in 2008.
 

Unemployment rate

The unemployment rate in May 2020 further escalated 0.3 percentage points month-on-month to 5.3 per cent after registering 5.0 per cent in April 2020. During the same period, the number of unemployed persons went up by 47.3 thousand to 826.1 thousand persons as against 778.8 thousand persons. Meanwhile, year-on-year, the unemployed rose by 306.3 thousand persons.

TECHNICAL NOTES

This information is derived from the  Labour Force Survey (LFS) which was conducted to collect information on the structure and distribution of labour force, employment and unemployment.

• 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.

• Employed refers to all persons who, at any time during the reference week worked at least one hour for pay, profit or family gain (as an employer, employee, own-account worker or unpaid family worker). Also considered as employed are persons who did not work during the reference week because of illness, injury, bad weather, leave, labour dispute and social or religious reasons but had a job, farm, enterprise or other family enterprise to return to.  Also included are those on temporary lay-off with pay who would definitely be called back to work.

• Unemployed

Unemployed refers to those who do not have a job but are interested to work. There are two groups of unemployed that is the actively unemployed and inactively unemployed.

• Outside Labour Force

All persons not classified as employed or unemployed as stated above are classified as outside labour force. Includes housewives, students (including those going for further studies), retired, disabled persons and those not interested in looking for a job.

• Labour Force Participation Rate

The economic activity of a population depends on the demographic characteristics of that population. The proportion of economically active population, therefore, differs between sub-groups of that population. These variations are measured by specific activity rates termed as labour force participation rate. Labour force participation rate is defined as the ratio of the labour force to the working age population (15 to 64 years), expressed as percentage.

• Unemployment rate is the proportion of unemployed population to the total population in labour force. This rate measures the percentage of unemployed population in the labour force.

Population by characteristics of age group, ethnicity and state were used as benchmarks to produce labour statistics.

Starting with the monthly release of the Principal Statistics of Labour Force, Malaysia, January 2016, the principal statistics of labour is estimated based on the current population estimates as compared to the previous series which used population projections based on the Population and Housing Census of Malaysia, 2010. This rebase is to obtain statistics that is more consistent with current population structure.

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DATO' SRI DR. MOHD UZIR MAHIDIN
CHIEF STATISTICIAN MALAYSIA
DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS, MALAYSIA
 DrUzir_Mahidin    Dr_Uzir

14 July 2020

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