Bank Negara Malaysia: Youth unemployment rate up by 1.2 percentage points

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has released its Annual Report 2016 yesterday, noting that “ the global youth population has been negatively affected by the deep recession, the ensuing environment of prolonged and shallow economic recovery and lacklustre job growth.”

Following the global financial crisis (GFC), the global youth unemployment rate rose from a pre-crisis rate of 11.7% in 2007 to 13.1% in 2009; and reaching a historic peak of 13.2% in 2013, and is estimated to remain high at 13.1% in 2016.

Youth unemployment rate in Malaysia

As for Malaysia, the youth unemployment rate in the country was estimated to have reached 10.7% in 2015, more than three times higher than the national unemployment rate of 3.1%.

Malaysia is among regional economies with an incidence of youth unemployment in the double-digits, despite a low overall unemployment rate

Charts / Bank Negara Malaysia Photo / 123RF