Overview

INTRODUCTION

Labour Force Survey (LFS) is conducted by Department of Statistic, Malaysia every month through household approach to obtain data on the structure of labour force, employment and unemployment. LFS is carried out with probability sampling via personal interview comprising citizens and non-citizens in urban and rural areas for every state in Malaysia.

KEY FINDINGS

The LFS report is an annual publication which presents the principal statistics of the labour force for population in the working age of 15 to 64 years old by selected demographic and socioeconomic characteristics such as sex, age group, educational attainment, occupation and industry.

The summary of Malaysia’s labour force in 2015

Malaysia’s labour force grew 1.8 per cent to 14.5 million persons in 2015 compared to the previous year. The rise is contributed by the increase of 215,100 employed persons (1.6%) to 14.1 million persons and the increase in the number of unemployed persons by 39,200 persons (9.5%) to 450.3 thousand persons. The labour force participation rate (LFPR) rose 0.3 percentage points in 2015 to 67.9 per cent. The unemployment rate during the same period increased from 2.9 per cent to 3.1 per cent.

Labour force participation rate

The increase of female employed persons contributed to the increase of overall LFPR. Female’s LFPR was up by 0.4 percentage points reaching 54.1 per cent in 2015. Female participation in the labour market was high exceeding 58.0 per cent for the prime age^[1] groups namely 25-34, 35-44 and 45-54 years. The participation of male labour force was unchanged compared to the previous year, at the rate of 80.6 per cent. However, the age groups of 35-44 years and 45-54 years registered a decline of 0.1 percentage points respectively. As a whole, LFPR of male was still higher than female for every age group.

Unemployment

High unemployment rate was recorded among the population aged 15-19 years that is 15.7 per cent in 2015 and followed by those aged 20-24 years with the rate of 9.3 per cent. However, in terms of percentage of unemployed persons, the largest contribution was youth age group of 20-24 years that is 42.1 per cent. 

The detailed information regarding this report can be accessed through the eStatistik applicaton in Department of Statistics Malaysia website, www.dosm.gov.my.

Note: ^[1] The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines prime age as population aged 25-54 years who are in the labour force

Released By:

THE OFFICE OF CHIEF STATISTICIAN MALAYSIA
DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS, MALAYSIA
29 April 2016

Contact person:
Ho Mei Kei
Public Relation Officer
Corporate and User Services Division
Department of Statistics, Malaysia
Tel : +603-8885 7942
Fax : +603-8888 9248
Email : mkho[at]stats.gov.my

For interviews, press statement and clarification to the media, contact:

Baharudin Mohamad

Public Relation Officer

Email: baharudin[at]dosm.gov.my

Phone: 03 8885 7942

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