Malaysia's jobless rate increased marginally at the start of the year, figures from the Department of Statistics showed Wednesday.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.1 percent in January from 3.0 percent in the previous month. A year ago, the jobless rate was 3.3 percent.
On seasonally adjusted basis, the unemployment rate also increased slightly to 3.0 percent in January from 2.9 percent in December.
The number of unemployed people decreased to 432,100 in January from 442,000 in the preceding month. In the same of the previous year, the jobless figures totaled 457,700.
The number of employed people came in at 13.60 million in January, down from 13.74 million in December.
At the same time, the labour force participation rate dropped to 67.2 percent in January from 67.9 percent in the prior month. A year earlier, the rate was at 67.8 percent.
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