More jobless as unemployment climbs to 4.8%

 

The number of people losing jobs during the pandemic is continuing to increase, but there has also been an increase in own-account workers. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: The country’s unemployment rate climbed to 4.8% with 768,700 unemployed persons in June, up from 4.5% in May, the department of statistics Malaysia (DOSM) reported today.

All sectors registered declines in employment.

Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said June also saw a lower labour force participation rate (LFPR) as some of the labour force had moved into inactivity. The LFPR in June was 68.3% compared to 68.5% in May.

There were 16.07 million people in the labour force in June, compared to 16.10 million people in May.

He said the challenging labour force situation was due to the surge of new daily Covid-19 cases, which have recently breached the 20,000 mark, aside from the implementation of the full movement control order (MCO).

Uzir also expects an uneven recovery if the current health crisis persists, adding that herd immunity was essential to loosen up containment measures and allow businesses to resume.

In a statement, he said the number of unemployed persons increased to 768,700 people from 728,100 in May 2021, while the employment-to-population ratio fell by 0.4% to 65%.

Uzir also noted that the number of employed persons who were temporarily not working had increased significantly to a record-high 801,100 people, compared to 139,600 people in May.

By status of employment, the number of employees fell to 11.87 million from 11.93 million in May.

Own-account workers saw an increase to 2.5 million from 2.49 million in May.

About 83.6% of those who are unemployed – or 642,900 – are people who were available for work and actively seeking jobs, an increase from 609,900 people in May 2021.

Those who were unemployed for less than three months made up 52.3% of the actively unemployed while 9.8% are those in long-term unemployment of more than a year.

Moreover, time-related underemployment (people working less than 30 hours a week) due to limited business hours or insufficient work increased to 474,100 workers, from 441,900 workers in the first quarter.

Time-related underemployment among persons who were able and willing to work extra hours increased to 329,700 people recording a time-related underemployment rate of 2.2% (Q1 2021: 310,500 persons; 2.0%).

“Meanwhile, skill-related underemployment, comprising those with tertiary education but working in semi-skilled and low-skilled occupations, went up by 2.5% to 1.85 million people, or 37.7% of the total of employed persons with tertiary education (Q1 2021: 1.90 million people; 37.9%).”

In terms of the unemployment situation by state, the highest unemployment rates in the second quarter were recorded in Labuan (8.8%), Sabah (8.7%), Perlis (5.3%), Kelantan (4.8%) and Selangor (4.4%). - FMT