KUCHING: There was a slight increase in the labour force and its participation rate (LFPR) last year, statistics showed.
According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, the labour force has increased by two percent to 15.6 million persons in 2019 compared to 15.3 million in 2018.
The participation rate–-the proportion of people at the working age of actually being employed-–increased marginally to 68.7 percent in 2019, the department said in its Labour Force Survey Report 2019 that was released yesterday.
Commenting on the report, chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the unemployment rate in 2019 remained at 3.3 percent.
“The unemployment rate in 2019 was not affected by the negative impact caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In January 2020, the unemployment rate was 3.2 percent and rose to 3.3 percent in February 2020.
“The unemployment rate for March 2020 will be published on May 8, 2020. The impact of the movement control order (MCO) implemented following the Covid-19 outbreak by WHO (World Health Organisation) on 11 March 2020 is expected to be reflected in the labour force indicator for March 2020 and overall of 2020,” said Mohd Uzir.
He added that both male and female LFPR rose 0.4 percentage points to 80.8 and 55.6 percent in 2019 respectively.
“The participation of females in the labour market for the prime age groups namely 25 to 34 years (73.7 percent), 35 to 44 years (68.0 percent), and 45 to 54 years (58.9 percent) was higher compared to female LFPR at the national one level.
“The male LFPR from the age group of between 15 and 24 years recorded the highest increase, coming from a 2.2 percentage point to 53.2 percent.
The age group of 25 to 34 years also recorded an increase of 0.4 percentage points to 96.1 percent.
“Overall, for all age groups, male LFPR remains higher than the female,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the number of employed persons with tertiary education increased 0.8 percentage points to 29.4 percent in 2019 as against to 28.6 percent in the previous year.
Statistics had also shown employed persons with primary education declined 1.0 percentage points.
