In the first quarter of 2022, labour force expanded by 0.7 per cent or 111.1 thousand persons to a total of 16.25 million persons (Q4 2021: 16.14 million persons), the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said.
Similarly, it said that as compared to the preceding quarter, the labour force participation rate (LFPR) escalated by 0.3 percentage points to 69.0 per cent. “This was the highest LFPR recorded since the first quarter of 2020 but remained below its pre-pandemic ratio (Q1 2020: 68.8%),” it said.
On the employment-to-population ratio which indicates the ability of an economy to create employment, DOSM said that it recorded an increase of 0.5 percentage points to 66.2 per cent (Q4 2021: 65.7%). Meanwhile, the number of outside labour force declined by71.6 thousand persons to record 7.29 million persons (Q4 2021: 7.36 million persons).
DOSMM said that the labour force increased by 237.8 thousand persons year-on-year (Q1 2021:16.01 million persons), while the LFPR increased by 0.4 percentage points from 68.6 per cent (Q1 2021).
“During first quarter of 2022, the number of employed persons continued to increase by 0.9 per cent (+134.2 thousand persons) to 15.57 million persons (Q4 2021:15.44 million persons). Simultaneously, employed persons rose by 2.2 per cent or equivalent to 338.3 thousand persons as compared to the first quarter of 2021 (Q1 2021: 15.24 million persons),” it said
On unemployment, DOSM said that in the first quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate dropped by 0.2 percentage points as against the previous quarter to record 4.1 per cent (Q4 2021: 4.3%). “The number of unemployed persons in this quarter reduced by 23.1 thousand persons to671.2 thousand persons,” it said. (Q4 2021: 694.4 thousand persons).
