Malaysia’s jobless rate stood at 4.1% in February 2022, a decline of 0.7% when compared to the same month of the previous year, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

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

Year-on-year, the number of unemployed persons declined by 105,700 persons or 13.6% (February 2021: 777,500 persons). Month-on-month, the number of unemployed persons declined further by 1.3%. to a total of 671,800.

Over the year, the number of employed persons rose by 3.0% or with an addition of 460,300 persons to a total of 15.73 million persons in February 2022. The monthly increase was 0.3%.

The country’s labour force participation rate stood at 69.1%, up 0.6% over the year and unchanged when compared to the previous month.

“The recovering economic situation in the first two months of 2022 was driven by encouraging economic activity,” Statistics Malaysia stated. “This situation allows the economic and business activities to continue operating, leading to more labour demand in the market to accommodate the needs of the business operations. This situation gives a positive signal to the labour market, thus encouraging more inclusion in the labour market and enabling the labour market to remain strong for the months to come.”

Effective from 1 April 2022, the country was in the transition to a new Covid-19 restriction phase with the opening of international borders and a lifting of operating hours restriction for businesses. The Department states that the reopening of the country's borders is also seen as a catalyst to revive the shortage of foreign labour in the country.