Malaysia’s unemployment rate stood at 4.8% in July 2021, up 0.1% year-on-year according to research from Statistics Malaysia.

When compared to June 2021, the unemployment rate remained flat.

The number of unemployed persons increased by 4.4% when compared to July 2020 and up 1.2% compared to June 2021, to a total of 778,200 persons.

The number of employed persons increased by 1.5% when compared to July 2020 and decreased by 0.02% compared to June 2021, to a total of 15.29 million persons.

The labour force in July 2021 stood at 16.07 million persons after registering decreases in the preceding months. The labour force participation rate (LFPR) during the month stood at 68.3%.

With the permission for more business activities to reopen under the country’s National Recovery Plan Phase 1 along with transitions of some states into Phase 3 and Phase 4, more labour market activities are foreseen in the upcoming months. Nonetheless, due to uncertain public health situation, the challenges to the labour market may persist, Statistics Malaysia stated.