Malaysia’s unemployment rate increased year-on-year by 1.7% to a rate of 4.9% in January 2021, according to data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

When compared to the previous month, the unemployment rate rose slightly by 0.1%.

Overall, the number of unemployed persons stood at 782,500 in January, this was up 52.9% from the previous year and up 1.2% from the previous month.

The number of employed persons in Malaysia stood at 15.24 million in January 2021, down 0.5% from the previous year but up 0.1% from the previous month.

Meanwhile, the country’s labour force participation rate stood at 16.02 million, up 1.2% from the previous year and up 0.2% from the previous month.

“Looking at the health crisis situation in early of 2021, the labour market is expected to face a little bumpy road in the first quarter,” the Department stated. “Nevertheless, as the first phase of vaccination programme was started from 24 February 2021 to April 2021 for the front liners, followed by second phase to the PWDs (persons with disabilities) and senior citizen from April to August 2021, the effort seemed to give some positive insight of the health crisis situation in Malaysia.”

The Department also pointed to the support of various initiatives and assistance packages.

“With these efforts, the uncertainties in the labour market will possibly be alleviating and subsequently the recovery momentum of labour market may be accelerated,” the Department added.

Chief statistician of the Department Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin told the Malay Mail that the labour market remained in a challenging situation following the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

“The reintroduction of the movement control order in most states, with only five essential economic sectors allowed to operate, and restricted inter-state and inter-district travel activities indirectly led to an uneven recovery momentum of businesses and the labour market,” Mahidin said.