Malaysia’s unemployment rate contracted year-on-year by 0.4% in the second quarter of 2023 to 3.5%, according to research from Statistics Malaysia.

The number of unemployed persons fell by 60,700 to a total of 581,400 when compared to the same quarter of the preceding year (Q2 2022: 3.9%; 642,000 persons).   

When compared to the previous quarter, the unemployment rate declined by 0.9% in the second quarter.

The number of employed persons remained on a positive trend in the second quarter of 2023, with a quarterly increase of 0.5% (84,100 persons) to post a total of 16.15 million persons (Q1 2023: 16.06 million persons).

As for the year-on-year comparison, the number of employed persons rose by 2.8% or 444,9000 persons as compared to the second quarter last year (Q2 2022: 15.70 million persons).

Broken down by employment status, the data showed that employees made 75% of total employed persons. This was followed by own account workers (workers who work on their own account) (18.4%), employers (3.6%) and unpaid family workers (3.0%).

Quarterly figures from Statistics Malaysia also showed the labour force participation rate increased 0.2% to 70.0% in the second quarter of 2023.

The labour force continued to post an increase in the second quarter of 2023, with a rise of 0.5% or 78,600 persons to register 16.73 million persons (Q1 2023: 16.65 million persons).