KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia recorded a slight increase in the labour force participation rate at 68.6% while the unemployment rate remained at 3.3% in January 2019, according to the Statistics Department.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said on Monday the labour force participation rate in January 2019 increased by 0.1 percentage point to 68.6% on-month and increased by 0.4 percentage points on-year.

In the report on the key statistics of the labour force, he said the number of workers in the labour force in January this year rose by 2.1% from a year ago to 15.51 million persons. 

During the same period, the number of employed persons increased by 2.2% to 14.99 million persons.

Mohd Uzir said the unemployment rate in January 2019 remained at 3.3% since September 2018. 

The number of unemployed persons was 515,600, down by 0.2% from a year ago.