The unemployment rate in Malaysia stood at 4.2% in January 2022, a drop 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 was flat.

The number of unemployed persons posted a decrease of 13.1% when compared to the same month of the previous year. The year-on-year decrease in the unemployment rate was attributable to the implementation of the Movement Control Order in Peninsular Malaysia during January last year due to Covid-19.

Month-on-month, the number of unemployed persons declined by 1.1%.

Meanwhile, the number of employed persons totalled 15.69 million in January 2022, up 2.9% from the same period last year and up 0.2% compared to the previous month.

January’s labour force participation rate (LFPR) increased by 0.1% month-on-month to 69.1% which was also a 0.6% increase over the same period last year.

According to the Department, unlike in January last year, the labour market was in a challenging situation as most of the states were in the Movement Control Order phase following the rising number of the Covid-19 new cases. During this period, only five essential economic sectors were allowed to operate while inter-state and inter district travel were restricted.

“An encouraging economic activity was observed in January 2022 since all states being in Phase 4 of the National Recovery Plan including Kelantan and Sarawak, which took effect from 3 January 2022. This situation has allowed businesses to continue operating at full capacity with longer business hours,” the Department stated.

The country’s vaccination rate, which is stated as 97.9% of adults having completed two doses of the vaccination and 50.8% having completed the booster vaccination, has provided the country with the confidence to open the economy, the Department added.