PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s labour market improved in 2024, recording its strongest post-pandemic performance yet, says the Statistics Department.
It said the key indicators showing improvement and stability are expected to persist into 2025.
According to its Annual Statistics of the Labour Force, Malaysia 2024, the unemployment rate fell to 3.2%, dipping below the pre-pandemic level of 3.3% recorded in 2019.
The number of unemployed persons also dropped to 534,100, driven largely by a decline in unemployment among youths aged 15 to 24.
“Concurrently, the labour force increased by 3.3% to 16.90 million people compared with 16.37 million in the previous year.
“The labour force participation rate (LFPR) also rose to a new record high of 70.6% from 70% in 2023,” it said in a statement here yesterday, Bernama reported.
The number of employed persons also saw positive annual growth, rising by 3.5% to 16.37 million from 15.81 million in 2023, it said.
“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% from 67.7% in 2023.”
The department said in terms of employment status, 78.5% of employed persons were classified as employees’ category while the number of own-account workers category went up to 2.52 million people, accounting for 15.4% of total employment.
It said most employed persons remained in semi-skilled occupations, representing 56.5% of total employment or about 9.26 million persons, followed by skilled occupations (4.94 million persons) and low-skilled occupations category (2.17 million persons).
From a sectoral perspective, employment in the services sector comprised 65.6% of the total employment followed by the manufacturing sector at 16.3% and agriculture sector at 9%.
Additionally, the construction sector accounted for 8.5% of total employment, while the mining and quarrying sector recorded the smallest share at 0.5 per cent.
The number of unemployed youths declined by 4.1% to 284,700 compared with 2023.
Unemployment among adults aged 25 to 64 also improved slightly, falling to 1.8%.
It also said Putrajaya recorded the lowest unemployment rate at 1.1%, followed by Melaka (1.6%), while Penang and Pahang, each recorded 2%.
Meanwhile, the highest LFPR was also registered in Putrajaya at 78.7% followed by Selangor (77.9%), Kuala Lumpur (75.4%) and Penang (72%).
The department said in terms of female participation, five areas exceeded the national level of 56.5%.
These areas are Putrajaya at 79.4%, Selangor (70.3%), Kuala Lumpur (66.6%), Melaka (58.4%) and Penang (57.6%).
It said that despite the positive trends, 7.02 million persons remained outside the labour force mainly due to housework or family responsibilities, comprising 43.1%, followed by those in the schooling or training category at 41.3%.
Looking ahead, the department said the country’s labour market will remain resilient in 2025 supported by stable economic growth.
