PUTRAJAYA (Sept 9): The size of the labour force in July 2024 went up further by recording an increase of 0.1% to 17.2 million persons from 17.17 million persons in June, while the labour force participation rate was unchanged at 70.4%, according to Labour Force Statistics released on Monday.

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin in a statement said the number of employed persons continued to rise in July 2024 by 0.2% to 16.63 million persons compared with 16.61 million persons in June 2024.

“The country's labour market remained stable, following the country's growing economic position, recording a steadily increasing number of employed persons, while the number of unemployed is decreasing,” he said when commenting on the overall performance for July 2024.

He said the number of unemployed persons continued to reduce by 0.3% to 563,700 persons compared with 565,300 persons recorded in June 2024, and the unemployment rate during the month remained at 3.3% as in the previous month.

Explaining further on the employment situation, the Chief Statistician said that in July 2024, most of the employed persons were in the employees’ category, accounting for 75%.

“This category rose by 0.1% to 12.48 million persons compared with 12.46 million persons in June.

“On the same note, the own-account 2 workers category remained its upward trend, increasing by 0.3% to 3.07 million persons from 3.06 million persons in June,” he said.

Mohd Uzir also said that those who were available for work and were actively seeking jobs or the actively unemployed comprised 80% of the total unemployed persons.

By duration of unemployment for the actively unemployed, he said those who were unemployed for less than three months made up 61.5%, while those who were in long-term unemployment for more than a year were 6.9%.

“Similarly, the inactively unemployed or those who believed that there were no jobs available, edged down by 0.4% to 113,000 persons in July from 113,400 in June,” he added.

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