KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's unemployment rate increased to 3.9 per cent in March, the highest since 3.6 per cent in June 2010, the Department of Statistics said.
This had led to the first quarter's (Q1) unemployment rate increasing to 3.5 per cent from 3.2 per cent in Q4 of 2019, said chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.
"This high unemployment rate was mainly attributed to the adverse impact of the Movement Control Order (MCO) on the labor market.
"The unemployment rate was the highest ever recorded since the second quarter of 2017," he said during a Facebook live session today.
Subsequently, Uzir said the labour force participation rate (LFPR) declined 0.1 percentage points from 68.7 per cent in February to 68.6 per cent in March after recording the highest LFPR in January 2020 of 68.9 per cent.
The number of labour force in March decreased 0.2 per cent to 15.84 million persons compared to February.
During the same period, employed persons decreased 0.7 per cent to 15.23 million persons.
He said the working population as of March was 15.23 million persons.
Of this, 2.81 million persons were own account workers such as traders at farmer markets, night markets, caterings or freelancers, among others.
"These group of workers were exposed to the risk of unemployments and work losses that affect their income during the MCO, partly due inability to work," he said.
Meanwhile, Uzir said sales recorded by wholesale and retail trade in March decreased 5.7 per cent year-on-year to RM103.2 billion.
The decline was attributed to retail trade, which decreased RM2.9 billion (-6.6 per cent).
Similarly, he said motor vehicles and wholesale trade also declined by RM1.9 billion (-15.3 per cent) and RM1.4 billion (-2.7 per cent) respectively.
Uzir said volume index of wholesale and retail trade registered 120.1 points, a contraction of 6.1 per cent year-on-year.