Unemployment rate up slightly in November due to CMCO

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s unemployment rate rose by a marginal 0.1 percentage point month-on-month to 4.8% in November, with 764,400 without work, the Department of Statistics Malaysia said today.

Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the conditional movement control order implemented during the month, which saw economic activities continuing to operate with adherence to strict SOPs, resulted in a slight drop in employment compared with the previous month.

“Among others, this may be due to job losses and cancellation or freezing of new hires,” he said in a statement.

Uzir said the number of unemployed persons rose by 2.2% or 16,200 people to 764,400 in November compared with 748,200 in October.

​The actively unemployed went up by 2.3% to 637,700 compared with 623,100 in October.

Overall, he said, the growth in labour force was almost flat, with an additional 5,200 people making up 5.96 million in November, while the labour force participation rate (LFPR) dropped marginally by 0.1 percentage point to 68.4%.