Labour force participation rate increased to 68.9%
The labour force participation rate in December 2019 increased 0.1 percentage points to 68.9 per cent as compared to the previous month and increased 0.4 percentage points as compared to the same month in the previous year (December 2018: 68.5%).
The number of labour force in this month rose 2.0 per cent against December 2018 to 15.80 million persons. During the same period, employed persons also increased 2.0 per cent to 15.29 million persons.
Unemployment rate increased to 3.3%
The unemployment rate in December 2019 increased to 3.3 per cent as compared to 3.2 per cent in November 2019. During this month, the number of unemployed accounted for 517.0 thousand persons, increased 0.6 per cent as compared to the previous month.
Unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) in December 2019 remained at 3.3 per cent.
TECHNICAL NOTES
This information is derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) which was conducted to collect information on the structure and distribution of labour force, employment and unemployment.
The survey population cover persons who live in private living quarters and excludes persons residing in institutions such as hotels, hostels, hospitals, prisons, boarding houses and workers residing in construction work site.
The survey comprises of the economically active and inactive population. To measure the economically active population, the LFS uses the age limit of 15 to 64 years. The economically active population comprises of those employed and unemployed whereas those who are inactive is classified as outside the labour force.
LFS uses the actual status approach, where a person is classified on the basis of his labour force activity during the reference week.
Unemployed refers to those who do not have a job but are interested to work. There are two groups of unemployed that is the actively unemployed and inactively unemployed.
All persons not classified as employed or unemployed as stated above are classified as outside labour force. Includes housewives, students (including those going for further studies), retired, disabled persons and those not interested in looking for a job.
The economic activity of a population depends on the demographic characteristics of that population. The proportion of economically active population, therefore, differs between sub-groups of that population. These variations are measured by specific activity rates termed as labour force participation rate. Labour force participation rate is defined as the ratio of the labour force to the working age population (15 to 64 years), expressed as percentage.
Population Benchmarks
Population by characteristics of age group, ethnicity and state were used as benchmarks to produce labour statistics.
Starting with the monthly release of the Principal Statistics of Labour Force, Malaysia, January 2016, the principal statistics of labour is estimated based on the current population estimates as compared to the previous series which used population projections based on the Population and Housing Census of Malaysia, 2010. This rebase is to obtain statistics that is more consistent with current population structure.
Release in PDF.
Released By:
DATO' SRI DR. MOHD UZIR MAHIDIN
CHIEF STATISTICIAN MALAYSIA
DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS, MALAYSIA
DrUzir_Mahidin
Dr_Uzir
7 February 2020
Contact person:
Mohd Yusrizal bin Ab. Razak
Public Relation Officer
Strategic Communication and International Division
Department of Statistics, Malaysia
Tel : +603-8885 7942
Fax : +603-8888 9248
Email : yusrizal.razak[at]dosm.gov.my