KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's unemployment rate has dropped to 4.8% in the second quarter of this year, says Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan.

       "Based on the latest labour survey by the Statistics Department, the unemployment figures had dropped by 0.3 percentage points to 4.8% in the second quarter of 2021 compared to 5.1% in the second quarter of 2020," he said in reply to a question from Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub (BN-Machang) during the Ministers' Question Time.

       Ahmad Jazlan had asked the Human Resources Ministry to reveal the latest unemployment figures based on each state until August this year.

       According to Saravanan, the Federal Territory (FT) of Labuan and the state of Sabah recorded unemployment rates of more than 8%, at 8.8% and 8.7%, respectively.

       "It means that for every 100 people who are in the workforce in those states, nine people are unemployed," he explained.

       Within the same period, Perlis recorded an unemployment rate of 5.3%, while Kelantan, Kuala Lumpur, Perak, Selangor, Sarawak and Terengganu recorded an unemployment rate of more than 4%.

       For Kedah, Penang, Johor, Melaka and Negri Sembilan, each state saw an average unemployment rate of between 3.5% to 3.9%.

       "The lowest unemployment rate was recorded in Putrajaya with only 1.7%," noted Saravanan.

       "This could be due to the high participation of the local residents who are employed as civil servants," he explained.

       In total, seven states recorded an unemployment rate of below 4%, showing that the economy in those states is still operating above full employment, he said.

       "At the same time, a decrease in unemployment has been recorded in seven states and territories, namely Sabah, Perak, Sarawak, Kedah, Johor, Negri Sembilan and Putrajaya," added the minister

       Although Selangor recorded the highest increase in terms of numbers who are in the workforce, it also saw a jump in unemployment from 161,300 to 165,000 individuals.

       "Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur recorded a total of 43,600 people who are unemployed which saw an additional 10,400 unemployed people compared to the same period last year," he said.