UNEMPLOYMENT increased by 17.1% in March due to the movement control order (MCO) to stop Covid-19 transmission, the Statistics Department said in its latest labour report.

The percentage increase was from 521,300 jobless people in March last year, to 610,500 people in the same month this year.

This put the unemployment rate for March this year at 3.9%, the highest rate of joblessness since 1986 when it was 7.4%, said chief statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin in a statement today.

A quarter-to-quarter comparison showed that unemployment for the first three months of this year had increased to 3.5%, compared to 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2019.

This made it the highest unemployment rate recorded since the second quarter of 2017, involving 546,600 people, Uzir said.

Graduates made up 29.3% of the unemployed.

“The increase in the unemployment rate can be attributed to the negative impacts caused by the MCO. 

“The unemployment category for the youth age group of 15 to 30 years recorded the highest unemployment rate (6.9%), followed by 31 to 45 years (1.4%) and age group 46 to 64 (1.1%).” – May 8, 2020.