KUALA LUMPUR (May 10): Malaysia's number of employed persons rose to a record high of 15.77 million in March 2022 from 15.73 million in the preceding month (February 2022) and 15.33 million a year earlier (March 2021) as more people got employed in the services, manufacturing and construction sectors in line with the country's Covid-19 vaccine-driven resumption of economic activities, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) and economists.

The DOSM said in a statement on Tuesday (May 10) that in terms of economic sector, Malaysia, which has a population of about 33 million people, saw its number of employed persons in the services sector remain in an upward trend mainly in the wholesale and retail trade, food and beverage, besides human health and social work segments.

"Nevertheless, employment in agriculture and mining and quarrying sectors remained on a negative trend," the DOSM said.

"The transition phase to [the Covid-19] endemic [status] as well as the easing of several more restrictions including the reopening of the country's borders to the public are seen to stimulate further the country's economy. In addition, economic activities are observed to be recovering especially for the tourism industry, thus allowing more demand for labour to ensure the operations of business activities run smoothly.

"In the meantime, the monthly external trade indicators for both exports and imports rebounded by registering double-digit growth month-on-month in March 2022. Meanwhile, ongoing international crises, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, has disrupted the global supply chain. However, it may have a minimal direct impact on Malaysia's trade," the DOSM said.

Looking ahead, the DOSM said Malaysia's economy and labour market will expand further in the coming months as more positive signs of the economy are indicated.

For March 2022, the DOSM said the country's unemployment rate however remained at 4.1%, based on the nation's 669,200 unemployed persons and 16.44 million-people labour force.

Economists are however optimistic about Malaysia's labour market recovery.

"Overall, the labour market has improved for eight straight months, reinforcing our expectations of a sustained recovery through 2022," UOB economists Julia Goh and Loke Siew Ting wrote in a note on Tuesday in response to the DOSM's latest update.

Goh and Loke said the country's transition to endemic status on April 1, 2022 and the expected upliftment of most Covid-19 containment measures by Sunday (May 15, 2022) are key catalysts for the ongoing economic recovery.

However, uncertainty surrounding geopolitical tensions, new coronavirus variants, and intensified business costs suggest that a full labour market recovery back to pre-pandemic levels is unlikely for now, they said.

"We maintain our year-end jobless rate forecast at 3.6% (end-2021: 4.1%, end-2019: 3.3%)," they said.

MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd economists wrote in a note on Tuesday that MIDF maintained its 2022 Malaysia average jobless rate forecast at 4% on factors including further recovery in domestic economy and continuous upbeat momentum in global trade.

"Looking ahead, we expect Malaysia's labour market to stay in steady recovery trend as indicated by job-vacancy rate, which shot to record high of 74.9% in Feb-22.

"On top of that, international borders reopening will push higher operating capacity in the domestic economy such as [those in the] aviation, tourism, construction and manufacturing sectors. As an oil-exporting economy, Malaysia is set to benefit from the soaring global commodity prices particularly [in] the palm oil and oil and gas sectors," the MIDF economists said.