Almost 100,000 out of a job since October, says minister

Nearly 100,000 workers lost their jobs or were sacked due to the conditional movement control order (CMCO) enforced on Oct 14, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Human Resources Minister M Saravanan said ministry data showed that the number of workers in question according to the Employment Insurance System under Perkeso had reached 99,696 as of Nov 27.

However, he said 120,296 out of 372,934 job seekers also found work during the same period.

“The country went through seven months of MCO to curb the spread of Covid-19,” he said.

“From June 10 onwards, the CMCO allowed more economic sectors to reopen although business has not been operating at optimum levels.”

He also spoke of the government’s stimulus packages designed to cushion the impact of the pandemic on the economy and labour market.

He was responding to Ahmad Jazlan (BN-Machang) who asked the ministry to state the number of jobs jeapordised after the CMCO and the impact on the employment industry and labour force in general.

Saravanan said according to a survey by the statistics department, workers in the aviation, hotel and tourism industries had been heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Based on the same survey, he said the highest unemployment rate of 5.3% or 8,261 individuals was recorded in May.

“The labour market can be seen as recovering with the drop in unemployment rate to 4.9% (7,732 people) in June and 4.7% (7,451 people) in July.

“It remained unchanged at 4.7% (7,416 people) in August.”

The latest figures show an unemployment rate of 4.6% (7,375 people) in September with an expected drop to 4.5% in December, he added.

“This is forecast to continue to next year.”