KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.0% in April 2026, with 511,800 people recorded as unemployed, according to the latest Labour Force Statistics released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
The rate increased by 0.1 percentage point from 2.9% in March, returning to the level last recorded in October 2025, Bernama reported.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the number of employed persons continued to grow, rising by 0.1% month-on-month to 16.82 million in April from 16.80 million in March.
“The employees’ category constituted 75.0% of total employed persons in April 2026. This category increased marginally by 0.05% to 12.61 million persons (March 2026: 12.60 million persons).
“In the meantime, the number of own-account workers continued to trend upward and rose by 0.2% to 3.15 million persons against the preceding month,” he said in a statement today.
Mohd Uzir said actively unemployed individuals — those available for work and actively seeking employment — made up 79.5% of the total unemployed population in April.
The number of actively unemployed persons increased by 0.3% to 407,100. Of these, 63.9% had been unemployed for less than three months, while 5.0% had remained unemployed for more than a year.
“At the same time, the inactively unemployed, comprising those who believed that no jobs were available, went up by 1.5% to 104,700 persons compared with 103,200 persons in the previous month,” he added.
Despite the uptick in unemployment, Mohd Uzir said Malaysia’s labour market continued to record modest growth, supported by the economy’s steady expansion.
The labour force increased by 0.1% to 17.33 million people in April, compared with 17.31 million in March.
Meanwhile, the labour force participation rate remained unchanged at 70.9%. – June 11, 2026