Malaysia’s Labour Market Hits Post-Pandemic High In 2024, Unemployment At 3.2 Pct - DOSM

PUTRAJAYA, June 30 (Bernama) -- Malaysia’s labour market gained momentum in 2024, recording its strongest post-pandemic performance yet, with key indicators showing improvement and stability expected to persist into 2025, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said today.

According to DOSM's Annual Statistics of the Labour Force, Malaysia 2024, the unemployment rate fell to 3.2 per cent, dipping below the pre-pandemic level of 3.3 per cent recorded in 2019.

The number of unemployed persons also dropped to 534,100, driven largely by a decline in unemployment among youths aged 15 to 24.

“Concurrently, the labour force increased by 3.3 per cent to 16.90 million persons compared to 16.37 million persons in the previous year. The labour force participation rate (LFPR) also rose to a new record high of 70.6 per cent from 70 per cent in 2023,” DOSM said in a statement here today.

The number of employed persons also saw positive annual growth, rising by 3.5 per cent to 16.37 million from 15.81 million in 2023, it said.

"Accordingly, the employment-to-population ratio, which indicates the ability of an economy to create employment, also increased by 0.7 percentage points to 68.4 per cent from 67.7 per cent in 2023," it said.

DOSM said in terms of employment status, 78.5 per cent of employed persons were classified as employees’ category while the number of own-account workers category went up to 2.52 million persons, accounting for 15.4 per cent of total employment.

It said most employed persons remained in semi-skilled occupations, representing 56.5 per cent of total employment or approximately 9.26 million persons, followed by skilled occupations (4.94 million persons) and low-skilled occupations category (2.17 million persons).

From a sectoral perspective, employment remained dominant in the services sector which continued its upward trend and comprised 65.6 per cent of the total employment followed by the manufacturing sector at 16.3 per cent and agriculture sector at 9.0 per cent. 

Additionally, the construction sector accounted for 8.5 per cent of total employment, while the mining and quarrying sector recorded the smallest share at 0.5 per cent.

The department said the underemployment situation improved in 2024, with the number of employed persons working less than 30 hours a week, due to job nature or insufficient work, falling by 6.1 per cent to 212,500 from 226,300 in 2023. Consequently, the underemployment rate declined to 1.3 per cent from 1.4 per cent in the previous year.

Youth unemployment fell to 10.3 per cent, with the number of unemployed youths down 4.1 per cent to 284,700 while unemployment among adults aged 25 to 64 also improved slightly, falling to 1.8 per cent.

At the state level, DOSM said Wilayah Persekutuan (WP) Putrajaya recorded the lowest unemployment rate at 1.1 per cent, followed by Melaka (1.6 per cent), Penang and Pahang, each recorded two per cent.

Meanwhile, the highest LFPR was also registered in WP Putrajaya at 78.7 per cent followed by Selangor (77.9 per cent), WP Kuala Lumpur (75.4 per cent) and Pulau Pinang (72 per cent).

DOSM said in terms of female participation, five states exceeded the national level of 56.5 per cent namely WP Putrajaya at 79.4 per cent), Selangor (70.3 per cent), WP Kuala Lumpur (66.6 per cent), Melaka (58.4 per cent) and Pulau Pinang (57.6 per cent).

It said despite the positive trends, 7.02 million persons remained outside the labour force mainly due to housework or family responsibilities with a share of 43.1 per cent, followed by those in the schooling or training category comprising 41.3 per cent.

Looking ahead, DOSM said the country's labour market will remain resilient in 2025 supported by stable economic growth, Malaysia's ASEAN Chairmanship and initiatives like the ASEAN Villages Network, which are expected to spur rural development and workforce upskilling.

-- BERNAMA