PUTRAJAYA: The number of employed persons rose by 0.2 per cent to 16.72 million in October from 16.69 million in September 2024, according to the Statistics of the Labour Force for October 2024, issued by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

DOSM chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin the number of unemployed dropped further by 0.7 per cent to 551,400 persons, compared to 555,300 in the preceding month.

"The unemployment rate remained unchanged for October 2024 at 3.2 per cent, the same as in the previous month, and the labour force participation rate in October stood at 70.5 per cent," he said in a statement today.

On the employment situation, he said the employees category made up 74.9 per cent of the total employed persons, with this group posting a slight rise of 0.1 per cent to 12.53 million persons, compared to 12.51 million the previous month.

"Likewise, the own-account workers were on an uptrend, rising by 0.3 per cent to 3.10 million persons (September 2024: 3.09 million)," he added.

Mohd Uzir also said the actively unemployed or those who were available for work and were actively seeking jobs made up 79.8 per cent of the total unemployed persons.

This category saw a decrease of 0.8 per cent, totalling 440,000 persons (September 2024: 443,500).

"Similarly, those who believed that there were no jobs available or the inactively unemployed fell by 0.4 per cent, to register 111,400 persons (September 2024: 111,800)," he said.

Mohd Uzir said the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 years declined by 0.1 percentage points to 10.4 per cent in October, resulting in 301,500 unemployed youths (September 2024: 10.5 per cent; 304,200 persons).

Nevertheless, the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 30 years remained unchanged at 6.3 per cent, with 420,200 unemployed youths.