Unemployment rate at 4.7 pct in October 2020 - DOSM

In a statement, chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the labour force improved at a slower pace in October due to an increase in both employed and unemployed persons.

He said the number of unemployed persons went up by 1.5 per cent to 748,200 persons compared with September 2020, while employed persons also registered an uptrend for five consecutive months with a marginal growth of 0.1 per cent month-on-month to 15.21 million persons.

As most of the states underwent the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) effective Oct 14, 2020, industrial and business activities continued their operations with compliance to strict standard operating procedures.

Hence, the labour market remained in modest condition as translated by the indicator of employment-to-population ratio which rose to 65.3 per cent in October.

“As for the status of employment, a higher number of employee’s categories were recorded during the month with an increase of 28,100 thousand persons to 11.76 million persons compared with the previous month.

“On the contrary, own-account workers decreased by 0.3 per cent to record 2.43 million persons compared to the previous month,” he said.

In the meantime, the number of employed persons who were temporarily not working increased to 183,600 persons against September 2020 (100,700 persons) mainly due to the implementation of CMCO during the month.

For the record, the country registered the highest number of those who were temporarily not working with a total of 5.9 million persons during MCO in April 2020.

This group of persons, who were most likely not able to work, was not categorised as unemployed as they had jobs to return to.

“Looking at the current situation, with an increasing number of new COVID-19 cases since October 2020, the labour market will continue to face uncertainties.

Nevertheless, with the CMCO being lifted in phases starting Dec 7, this will partly lead the economic sectors to regain their momentum following higher demand, and subsequently will encourage businesses to retain or even increase job opportunities,” he added.