Just under a third of Malaysia's working age population outside the labour force

According to recently released data on the November 2019 labour force by Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), just under one-third of Malaysia's working age population lies outside the labour force. This 31.2% comprises housewives, students, retirees and those interested to work.

Overall, however, the outlook is holding up well as the labour force participation rate in November 2019 increased 0.1 percentage points to 68.8% as compared to the previous month, and increased 0.4 percentage points year-on-year as well (November 2018: 68.4%).

The number of labour force in this month rose 2.4% against November 2018 to 15.83 million persons. During the same period, employed persons also increased 2.5% to 15.32 million persons.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in November 2019 remained at 3.2% for two consecutive months. During this month, the number of unemployed accounted for 513.9 thousand persons, increased by 0.4% as compared to the previous month.

Unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) in November 2019 increased to 3.3% as compared to 3.2% in the previous month.

All images / DOSM