Malaysia’s jobless rate improved to 3.9% in April 2022, a decline of 0.7% when compared to the same month of the previous year, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia. This marks the first time the unemployment rate has fallen below 4.0%.

Year-on-year, the number of unemployed persons fell by 12.6% to 649,300.

When compared to the previous month, the unemployment rate declined by 0.2%. In April 2022, the number of unemployed persons continued to trend down for nine consecutive months, registering a monthly fall of 3.0% or equivalent to 19,900 persons.

On a year-on-year comparison, the number of employed persons continued to rise by 3.3% or equivalent to 501,500 persons to a total of 15.85 million persons in April 2022. Month-on-month there was an increase of 0.5% or equivalent to 84,100.

In April 2022, Malaysia’s number of labour force went up by 2.5% or 408,000 over the year to 16.50 million. The labour force participation rate escalated by 0.8% to 69.4% compared to 68.6% in April 2021.

The Department noted that the increase in employers’ applications for non-citizen employment following the reopening of the country's international borders is anticipated to be able to ease the labour shortages issues especially in the construction and agriculture sectors; and subsequently further stimulate the country’s labour market situation.