KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 — The first month of the movement control order (MCO) first implemented on March 18 severely affected the manufacturing sector, which contracted by 37.2 per cent year-on-year in April.
The Department of Statistics said this is in comparison with the sector’s output decline in March alone, which stood at 4.1 per cent.
“The subsector decreases include non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products at -62.7 per cent, electrical and electronics products at -34.1 per cent, and petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products at -21.4 per cent,” it said in the second volume of the Malaysia Economic Statistics Review report for 2020.
The MCO also resulted in Malaysian exports declining by as much as 23.8 per cent to RM64.9 billion, making it the largest one since September 2009 during the global financial crisis at the time. Malaysia’s trade was valued at RM133.3 billion, reduced to 16.4 per cent year-on-year.
“Meanwhile imports dropped eight per cent to RM68.4 billion, resulting in a trade deficit for the first time since October 1997, at RM3.5 billion. The country’s unemployment rate spiked to five per cent as unemployment numbers went up 48.8 per cent, or 778.8 thousand people compared to a year.
“Concerning labour supply, by the MCO’s second and third phases in April the number of labour force increased marginally at 0.6 per cent to 15.7 million persons as compared to the same quarter of the preceding year, the lowest growth since September 2014,” said the department.
In the short term, the number of labour force declined by 0.8 per cent in April compared to March. During the same period the labour force participation rate declined by 0.5 per cent to 68.1 per cent as the population flowed out of the labour force.
“This resulted in the increase in the share of the working age population aged 15 to 64 being outside the labour force to 31.9 per cent. In terms of number, this group made up 7.3 million persons comprising housewives, students, retirees and those uninterested in working.
“The number of employed persons began to decline in March during the MCO’s first phase. This trend continued in April where the number of employed persons went down by 156.4 thousand persons year-on-year to 14.9 million persons,” it said.
On a monthly basis the number of employed persons registered a larger decrease of 299.0 thousand persons, with the decline mostly observed in the manufacturing and services sectors specifically for industries such as accommodation, food and beverages, as well as arts, entertainment and recreation. Employed persons largely fell in the segments of own account workers and private employees.
“This is in line with the MCO’s strict measures which halted businesses in various non-essential services. As these businesses temporarily shut down with no definite promise of restarting again, employment declined considerably.
“The number of inactive unemployed persons or also known as discouraged group doubled to 319.0 thousand persons in April compared to the same month last year. Among the actively unemployed who continued job-hunting, the number of unemployed for less than three months rose significantly by 85.8 thousand persons to 235.9 thousand persons,” said the department.
This meant that those who just only joined the labour market or in between jobs faced difficulties in securing employment as a consequence of the MCOs.
