KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s June unemployment rate stood at 3%, with the number of unemployed declining to 518.7 thousand persons, according to the Statistics Department (DOSM).
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the country’s labour market continued to show favourable growth momentum in June 2025, following the positive development of the national economy.
This was reflected in a steady rise in employment and a further decline in unemployment.
“Thus, the labour force continued its upward trend in June 2025, increasing by 0.3% month-on-month to 17.43 million persons. The labour force participation rate (LFPR) in June 2025 stood at 70.8%, consistent with the rate recorded in May,” Mohd Uzir said in a statement.
In June 2025, employment rose 0.3% to 16.92 million, while unemployment fell 0.7% to 518.7 thousand. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.0% for the third month, reflecting stable labour market conditions.
Mohd Uzir noted that employees’ category remained the largest segment of the employment, comprising 75.0% of the total employed persons. This category experienced a 0.2% increase, reaching 12.69 million persons in June 2025.
Likewise, the number of own-account workers continued to improve with an addition of 0.6% to 3.20 million persons, up from 3.18 million in the previous month.
Mohd Uzir noted that in June 2025, 79.9% of the unemployed were actively seeking work, totalling 414,400 people—a 0.5% decrease from May’s 416,400.
Of these, 64.5% had been unemployed for less than three months, while 5% faced long-term unemployment over a year. Meanwhile, the inactively unemployed, those who believed no jobs were available, fell 1.6% to 104,300 from 106,000 in May.
In June 2025, the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 years remained unchanged at 10.2%, recording 297.5 thousand unemployed youths.
Among youth aged 15 to 30, the youth unemployment rate stood at 6.2%, with 396.8 thousand unemployed youths as against 399.0 thousand persons in the previous month.
In the second quarter, labour force experienced a growth of 0.8% to 17.37 million persons.
The LFPR increased marginally by 0.1 percentage points to reach 70.8%, compared to 70.7% in the previous quarter. Reflecting this trend, the number of employed persons increased by 0.9% to 16.85 million persons.
Meanwhile, the number of unemployed persons showed a decline of 1.0% to 520.9 thousand persons.
The unemployment rate for the second quarter of 2025 dropped by 0.1 percentage points to 3.0% compared to the previous quarter.
