KUALA LUMPUR: The unemployment rate in Malaysia dipped to 3.5 percent in February 2023, with 591.9 thousand unemployed persons compared to 596,100 recorded in January, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Commenting on the overall performance for February 2023 following the release of Key Statistics of Labor Force Malaysia today, Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the position of the country’s labor market continues to be stable in line with the current economic developments.

“In this regard, the number of the labor force in February 2023 was on an increasing trend, with a month-on-month increase of 0.2 percent to 16.78 million persons (January 2023: 16.76 million persons), recording a higher labor force participation rate at 69.9 percent (January 2023: 69.8 percent).

“This encouraging situation was attributed to a continuous addition in the number of employed persons while the number of unemployed was on a decreasing trend,” he said in a statement today.

On the employment situation, he said the employees’ category comprised 75.7 percent of the total employed persons in February as it recorded an increase of 0.1 percent, reaching a total of 12.25 million persons compared to 12.24 million persons in January.

“A similar trend was observed in the own-account workers also posted a rise of 0.5 percent to record 2.89 million persons in February 2023 (January 2023: 2.88 million persons),” he added.

In terms of the economic sector, Mohd Uzir said the number of employed persons in the services sector continued to increase, particularly in food and beverage services, wholesale and retail trade; and administration and support service activities.

The number of employed persons in the manufacturing, construction, mining and quarrying, as well as agriculture sectors also denoted the same trend, he added.