PETALING JAYA, June 24 (Sin Chew Daily) — Deputy Minister of Human Resources Datuk Awang Hashim said a total of 129,444 people lost their jobs across the country from last March, when the movement control order (MCO) was first enforced, until June 18 this year.

He said the worst hit was the manufacturing sector.

During an interview with Sin Chew Daily, Awang Hashim said according to the Employment Insurance System (EIS) statistics, June and July 2020 saw the largest numbers of people losing their jobs, at 18,579 and 16,660 respectively.

The statistics also shows a gradual decline in the number of job losses since this January.

As many as 26,909 people hired in the manufacturing sector (21% of total) lost their jobs since last March, followed by the wholesale and retail industry at 17,941 (14%), and accommodation and F&B at 17,033 (13%).