Labour force participation and unemployment rates drop in November

PETALING JAYA: Labour force participation and unemployment rates for the month of November dropped a percentage point compared with October 2017, according to Department of Statistics.

Labour force participation rate stood at 67.9% for the month, while unemployment rate was at 3.3%. The labour force stood at 15.04 million, while unemployment was at 505,100.

Those who are outside the labour force, comprising of housewives, students (including those pursuing further studies), retired, disabled and not interested to work, was up 0.1% in November, compared with October 2017, or 7.12 million in absolute numbers.

Year-on-year showed that labour force participation rate in November 2017 increased by 0.2 percentage point. This was as year-on-year unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points as compared with November 2016.

On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, the unemployment rate for November 2017 decreased 0.1 percentage point to 3.4%.