Malaysia: Unemployment leaps to 5.0% in April – UOB

UOB Group’s Senior Economist Julia Goh and Economist Loke Siew Ting assessed the latest labour market report in Malaysia.

Key Quotes

“Malaysia’s unemployment rate rose sharply to 5.0% in April (Mar: 3.9%) which was during the first full month of the Movement Control Order (MCO). There were additional 253k unemployed persons in Mar-Apr. The labor participation rate continued to edge lower to 68.1% in Apr (Mar: 68.6%, Feb: 68.7%) after the MCO Phase 1 took effect on 18 March.”

“The most affected employed persons were in the manufacturing and services sectors namely accommodation and food & beverage; arts, entertainment & recreation and other services such as beauty centres and salons.”

“Jobs and labor market have been a prime focus for the government going by the sizeable support for wage subsidies, training, and hiring. The unemployment rate is expected to rise further in May as most businesses were still not fully operating last month while companies adjust their labor headcount to ease operating costs. However, since the relaxation of MCO in May-Jun, 12.7 million or 83.5% of employees have started to return to work and that should help ease the labor market strains.”