Nearly 100,000 Malaysians have lost jobs since start of MCO, says HR ministry

KUALA LUMPUR: As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to ravage the economy, the Human Resources Ministry reveals that 99,696 Malaysians have lost their jobs since the implementation of the movement control order (MCO) in March up till Nov 27 this year.

Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan (pic) said these were figures reported by the Employment Insurance System under the Social Security Organisation (Perkeso).

Saravanan also said that during the same period, 120,296 out of 372,934 job seekers were successfully employed.

Saravanan was responding to Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub (BN-Machang), who asked the ministry to state the number of jobs affected by the MCO.

Saravanan was speaking in Parliament earlier Wednesday (Dec 9).

Meanwhile, Saravanan said the Labour Force Survey conducted by the Statistics Department found that employees in the aviation, hospitality and tourism sectors are the most affected by Covid-19.

He also said that based on the survey, the highest unemployment in 2020 was recorded in March, where unemployment stood at 5.3% or 826,100 individuals.

However, on a positive note, Saravanan said the local labour market has since improved, as unemployment saw a decrease to 4.9% or 745,100 individuals in June.

“Unemployment continued to drop to 4.7% or 745,100 individuals in July and remained at 741,600 individuals in August.”

He also said that data from the survey in September indicated that unemployment has decreased to 4.6% or 737,500 individuals in September.

“It is expected that unemployment rates in December will be decreased to 4.5% and the trend of decreasing unemployment rates will continue to 2021.”