PUTRAJAYA, June 30 — 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, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
According to its 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, primarily due to 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 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.
"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.
In terms of employment status, 78.5 per cent of employed persons were classified as employees, while the number of own-account workers went up to 2.52 million persons, accounting for 15.4 per cent of total employment.
DOSM added that 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 the low-skilled occupations category (2.17 million persons).
From a sectoral perspective, employment remained dominant in the services sector, which continued its upward trend, comprising 65.6 per cent of the total employment. This was followed by the manufacturing sector at 16.3 per cent and the agriculture sector at 9.0 per cent.
Meanwhile, 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.
It reported that 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, decreasing 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 reported that the Putrajaya Federal Territory recorded the lowest unemployment rate at 1.1 per cent, followed by Melaka (1.6 per cent), and Penang and Pahang, each with a rate of two per cent.
Meanwhile, the highest LFPR was also registered in the Putrajaya Federal Territory at 78.7 per cent, followed by Selangor (77.9 per cent), the Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory (75.4 per cent), and Penang (72 per cent).
In terms of female participation, five states exceeded the national level of 56.5 per cent, namely the Putrajaya Federal Territory at 79.4 per cent, Selangor (70.3 per cent), the Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory (66.6 per cent), Melaka (58.4 per cent), and Penang (57.6 per cent).
It said that despite the positive trends, 7.02 million persons remained outside the labour force, primarily due to housework or family responsibilities, accounting for 43.1 per cent, followed by those in the schooling or training category, which comprised 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
