Macroeconomics

Unemployment Rate Dropping Thursday, March 10th, 2022 at Economy | News By BERNAMA THE number of unemployed persons in the country in January has declined to 680,400, bringing the unemployment rate at 4.2%, chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said. He said the number was lowered by 1.1% from 687,600 recorded in December last year. "The labour force situation continued to improve in January 2022 led by the continuous rise in employment while unemployed persons trended down," he said in a statement on the Statistics of Labour Force in Malaysia for January 2022 yesterday. Mohd Uzir said the positive month-on-month (MoM) growth of employed persons continued in January 2022 with 0.2% to record 15.69 million persons compared to 15.65 million persons in December 2021. The employment-to-population ratio which indicates the ability of an economy to create employment also rose by 0.1 percentage point to 66.2% in January 2022 compared to 66.1% in the previous month," he said. The number of labour force in January 2022 remained positive with an addition of 30.2 thousand persons or 0.2% MoM to register 16.37 million persons, hence, increasing January's labour force participation rate to 69.1% from December 2021's rate of 69%. The situation reflects the encouraging economic activities observed in January 2022 since all states being in Phase 4 of the National Recovery Plan which allowed businesses to continue operating at full capacity with longer business hours," he said. Mohd Uzir said of the total 680,400 unemployed persons recorded in January, 83.7% were those who were available for work and were actively seeking jobs or the actively unemployed. By economic sector, the number of employed persons in services persistently recorded a MoM increase, particularly in food and beverage services, wholesale and retail trade, and information and communication activities. A similar trend was observed in the manufacturing and construction sectors with the number of employments remained on the rise, while the employment in agriculture and mining and quarrying sectors was on a declining trend for the past 18 months. - Bemama Question: 1. Identify the type of unemployment that contributed towards the rise of the unemployment rate in Malaysia in year 2021. Justify your answer. 2. Based on the article above, briefly explain the factors influencing the decline in the unemployment rate in January 2022