THE national unemployment rate dropped below 4% for the first time since March 2020 to 3.9% in April (4.1% in March). 

However, the current unemployment rate remains higher than pre-pandemic levels of just over 500,000 a month — the actively unemployed accounted for 83.6% of total job losses while the inactively unemployed accounted for 16.4%.

Furthermore, the unemployment rate for youths aged 15 to 24 reached a 10-month low of 12.8% (13.1% in March), with the number of unemployed youths declining by 3,800 to 357,200 (4,100 to 361,000 in March).

Nonetheless, the labour force participation rate hit an all-time high of 69.4% (69.2% in March), growing for 10 consecutive months by 64,300 to the largest size of 16.5 million (35,800 to 16.44 million in March).

In terms of total employment, the market recorded the biggest gain in six months of 84,100 to a new high of 15.85 million (38,500 to 15.77 million in March), which was mainly driven by continued employment in services (wholesale and retail trade; food and beverage; and human and social work activities), the manufacturing and construction sectors, as well as the resumption of employment in the agriculture sector for the first time in 23 months.

This excludes the mining and quarrying sectors which still recorded a reduction in employment for the 21st consecutive month.

Meanwhile, the employment-to-population ratio jumped for the ninth consecutive month to 66.7% (66.4% in March) marking the highest ratio since January 2020.

However, the number of people outside the labour force recorded the largest decline in six months of 39,500 to 7.27 million (11,000 to 7.31 million in March) which fell for the ninth month in a row and marked the lowest number since March 2020.

The main reason for not finding work in April was due to home work or family work with a share of 42% or 3.05 million people (42.3% or 3.09 million in March), followed by schooling or training which made up 40.6% or 2.95 million people (as compared to 40.8% or 2.98 million people in March).

United Overseas Bank Ltd senior economist Julia Goh (picture) said the nine consecutive months of improvements across most labour market indicators suggest a sustainable labour market recovery by 2022.

“The key positive drivers of the recovery include Malaysia’s transition to endemicity with the full reopening of economic activity and national borders between April and May; higher national vaccination rates against the pandemic; continued government policy support for target and vulnerable groups; and resilient global demand. 

“However, recovery efforts are facing significant problems from varying factors such as concerns of a global recession, high business costs, prolonged supply chain congestion and China’s economic slowdown,” she said.

Goh also noted that the latest S&P Global Inc manufacturing PMI survey for Malaysia showed the index fell to 50.1 in May (51.6 in April) and showed widespread stagnation in manufacturing operating conditions — including manufacturers continuing to struggle with high price pressures; supply chain delays; labour shortages; repeated closures in China that worsened supply conditions; and difficulties in getting workers which led to a declining factory production trend. — by AUFA MARDHIAH / pic TMR