KUALA LUMPUR (April 14): Malaysia’s Statistics Department chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin (pictured) said today the Covid-19 pandemic could have begun impacting the country’s unemployment rate in March 2020.

"The unemployment rate in February 2020 was still unaffected by the internal shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and is expected to have an impact on the unemployment rate beginning in March 2020,” Mohd Uzir said in a statement today on the nation’s February 2020 labour force numbers.

He said the country’s labour force grew 2.1% to 15.87 million persons in February 2020 from a year earlier. During the same period, employed persons also rose 2.1% to 15.34 million individuals, he said.

He said the labour force participation rate in February 2020 increased 0.2 percentage points to 68.7% from a year earlier. Month-on-month, the labour force participation rate in February 2020 fell 0.2 percentage points to 68.7%, he said.

"The unemployment rate in February 2020 increased to 3.3% as compared to 3.2% in January 2020. During this month (February 2020), the number of unemployed accounted for 525.2 thousand persons, increasing 2.6% as compared to the previous month,” he said.

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