PETALING JAYA: The unemployment rate jumped to 5% April 2020, as the number of unemployed persons spiked by 48.8% year-on-year (yoy) to 778,800 persons, according figures by the Department of Statistics Malaysia.
Malaysia’s chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin explained that the closure of operations for most businesses during the movement control order (MCO) which has been extended to April 2020 has impacted loss of employment and jobseekers could hardly find jobs.
For the month, the working population declined by 1% yoy to 14.93 million persons.
“The most affected employed persons were in the manufacturing and services sectors namely accommodation and food & beverage; arts, entertainment & recreation and other services such as beauty centres and salons,” he said in a statement.
On a monthly basis, the number of working population decreased by 2% or 299,000 person compared to 15.23 million persons reported in March.
Furthermore, the department stated that there were 2.59 million own account workers served in April, which comprised largely of traders, small traders in markets, catering, stalls, freelancers, smallholders, tour operators and others.
“These groups of workers were exposed to the risk of job and income losses following the MCO. From the survey, MCO has affected 4.87 million employed persons who were not working in April 2020. However, this group of people was not categorised as unemployed as they have work to return to,” said Uzir.
Meanwhile, the labour force participation rate (LFPR) in April 2020 declined 0.5 percentage points to 68.1%, due to labour force outflows.
The last time Malaysia posted a LFPR of 68.1% was in December 2017.
Overall, all sectors of the economy were affected during the Phase 2 and 3 of MCO in April 2020 especially for the non-essential services.
“Malaysia’s labour market in May 2020 is expected to be further affected following the conditional MCO (CMCO) starting May 5, 2020 as businesses were still not fully in operation,” said the chief statistician.
During this period, he pointed out that companies have the tendency to reduce the size of their employees to ease the burden of the operating cost despite a projected decline in revenue.
On the other hand, the commencement of the recovery MCO (RMCO) on June 10, which saw the reactivation of business for more sector and the resumption of inter-state travels is predicted to steer the improvement of the job market, especially in the travel and tourism related industries.
