Malaysian labour force up 2% to nearly 15 million in 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian labour force rose 2% to nearly 15 million in 2017 compared with 14.7 million recorded in 2016, according to the findings of the Labour Force Survey Report 2017 released by the Department of Statistics.
Commenting on the report, Chief Statistician Malaysia, Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin, said the labour force participation rate (LFPR) increased to 68% in 2017, up 0.3%, versus 67.7% in 2016.
"The female LFPR rose 0.4%, year-on-year (y-o-y), to 54.7% in 2017 while the male LFPR stood at 80.1%, dropping 0.1% y-o-y.
"Overall, the male LFPR was still higher than female labour force participation rate for all age groups," he said.
Meanwhile, the department said the unemployment rate remained at 3.4% over the last two consecutive years, showing that the country's economy was still operating at full employment.
"Among the active unemployed persons, 45.1% secured employment in less than three months," it added. — Bernama