The unemployment rate in Malaysia stood at 3.4% in July 2023, down by 0.3% from a year earlier, and unchanged from the previous month, according to the latest statistics from the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

In July 2023, the number of unemployed persons continued to decline over the month, falling by 0.4% to record 579,200 persons (June 2023: 581,700). Over the year it fell by 6.7%.

Meanwhile, in July 2023, the number of employed persons recorded a continuous upward trend, with a growth of 0.2% (+27,200 thousand persons) month-on-month, resulting in a total of 16.34 million persons (June 2023: 16.31 million persons). Over the year, the increase was 2.2%.

During the month, the employment-to-population ratio which indicates the ability of an economy to create employment, rose by 0.1% over the month to 67.7% (June 2023: 67.6%).

Looking at the distribution of employed persons across economic sectors, over the month, the services sector continued to record increases in the number of employed persons, particularly in food & beverage services; wholesale & retail trade; and education activities. Likewise, the number of employed persons in the construction and mining & quarrying sectors also remained on a positive trend, while the manufacturing and agriculture sectors registered marginal declines during the month.

The employees’ category constituted the largest composition of the total employed persons, making up 75.4%. In July 2023, this category registered a rise of 0.1% (14,400 persons) to 12.31 million persons as compared to the previous month (June 2023: 12.30 million persons). Similarly, the number of own-account workers were also on increasing trend, with an addition of 10,400 persons (+0.4%) to 2.96 million persons (June 2023: 2.95 million persons).

Malaysia’s labour force participation rate stood at 70.1% in July, up 0.1% over the month and up 0.5% over the year.

In July 2023, the number of persons outside the labour force posted a marginal monthly decline of 0.01% to 7.23 million persons (June 2023: 7.23 million persons). The annual decline was 0.3%. Housework/ family responsibilities were the major composition of the outside labour force (43.6%), followed by the schooling/ training category (39.8%).