Skip page header and navigation

Malaysia’s jobless rate improves to 3.2% in August

Malaysia’s jobless rate improves to 3.2% in August

October 11, 2024

main article

Malaysia’s unemployment rate in August 2024 fell by 0.2% to 3.2% when compared to the same period a year ago, according to the latest data by Statistics Malaysia.

It comes after nine months where the unemployment rate was registered at 3.3%.

The number of unemployed persons declined further in August 2024 to record 558,500 persons, from 577,300 the year before and down from 563,700 persons in July 2024.

Meanwhile, the change in the number of employed persons remained positive, with a month-on-month increase of 0.2% or equivalent to 29,400 persons to record 16.66 million persons in August 2024 (July 2024: 16.63 million persons). This compared to 16.35 million in August 2023.

The employment-to-population ratio, which indicates the ability of an economy to create employment, stood at 68.1% as of July 2024.

The number of labour force participants continued to increase in August 2024 with a rise of 0.1% (up 24,200 persons) to 17.22 million persons (July 2024: 17.20 million persons) and 16.93 million persons in August 2023. The labour force participation rate (LFPR) during the month was unchanged month-on-month at 70.4%, as recorded last month, but up from 70.1% in August 2023.

The number of persons outside the labour force showed a slight decline of 0.01% to 7.23 million persons in August 2024 (July 2024: 7.23 million persons).