The number of unemployed people decreased in April this year by 0.3% to 586,900 from 588,700 last month, said the Statistics Department.

Releasing the Statistics of the Labour Force, Malaysia, April 2023, the department said the unemployment rate in April 2023 stood at 3.5%, unchanged from March 2023.

DoSM said labour force numbers in April this year recorded an addition of 0.2%, registering 16.84 million people compared to 16.81 million in March.

“Accordingly, the labour force participation rate edged up 0.1 percentage points to 70.0% (March 2023: 69.9%) indicating more labour participation in the market,” it said.

DoSM said a month-on-month comparison showed that the number of employed people in April 2023 inched up 0.2% to record 16.25 million people versus 16.22 million in March.

DoSM said the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 years on a month-to-month basis decreased 0.1 percentage points to 11.1%, recording the number of unemployed youths at 315,600 people versus 11.2% in March with 317,300 people.

The department said the number of people outside the labour force in April 2023 recorded a marginal decline of 0.03% to 7.23 million people compared with 7.23 million in March.

DoSM said the labour market is expected to grow modestly in the coming months as the Malaysian economy is projected to flourish moderately.

“Malaysia’s economy is expected to maintain its positive growth in 2023 albeit at a slower pace than in 2022. 

“This is supported by factors such as sustained domestic demand, improved labour market conditions, more stable inflation trends, and the recovery of tourist arrivals, whereby encouraging tourism activity is expected to positively impact the growth of the tourism sector and related industries,” it said.