Malaysia’s labour market continued to improve in August 2023, with the unemployment rate remaining unchanged at 3.4%. This was supported by a 2.1% increase in the number of employed persons year-on-year.
The services sector continued to be the main driver of employment growth, with wholesale and retail trade, food and beverage services, and transportation and storage activities seeing the largest increases. The manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and mining and quarrying sectors also registered increases in the number of employed persons.
The number of unemployed persons continued to trend down, registering a fall of 0.3% over the month. This was largely due to a decrease in the number of actively unemployed persons, which fell by 0.6%.
The labour force participation rate remained steady at 70.1%, while the employment-to-population ratio rose to 67.7%.
Overall, the positive economic outlook and the rapid implementation of the MADANI Economic Narrative have opened up more job opportunities in the labour market.
