PUTRAJAYA, March 13 — The unemployment rate in January 2020 dropped to 3.2 per cent compared to 3.3 per cent in December last year, the Statistics Department said.

"In January 2020, the number of those unemployed was 511,700 people, a 0.1 per cent drop compared to the previous month,” said Malaysian chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a statement today.

According to the key statistics of the labour force, Mohd Uzir said the labour force participation rate in January 2020 remained at 68.9 per cent for the past two consecutive months.

However, it was an increase of 0.3 per cent compared to the same month last year (Jan 2019: 68.6 per cent), he said.

Mohd Uzir said the labour force in January 2020 increased 2.1 per cent, compared to Jan 2019, to 15.83 million people.

"In the same period, the number of Malaysians employed also increased 2.2 per cent to 15.32 million people,” he said. — Bernama