{"id":4045,"date":"2020-06-03T06:51:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-02T22:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=4045"},"modified":"2020-06-03T06:51:39","modified_gmt":"2020-06-02T22:51:39","slug":"nearly-70-pct-of-workforce-back-at-work-as-of-may-17-tengku-zafrul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=4045","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 70 pct of workforce back at work as of May 17 – Tengku Zafrul"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 – Some\u00a010.25 million people, or 67.2 per cent of the workforce, had\u00a0returned to work as of May 17, up from 6.64 million people or 43.6 per cent a week earlier (May 10), said Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri\u00a0 Zafrul Abdul Aziz.<\/p>\n

Citing data from the Statistics Department, he said these figures took into account\u00a0those working from home and covered\u00a0various economic sectors such as services, agriculture, manufacturing, and mining and quarrying.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increase in the number of employees returning to work shows that the opening of the economy on May 4 by the government has thus far been smooth to enable workers to earn their livelihood,\u201d he said when presenting the 7th\u00a0Laksana-Prihatin accomplishment report today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

On the issue of saving jobs, Tengku Zafrul said based on the Statistics Department\u2019s report dated May 29, the country\u2019s unemployment rate for the first quarter (Q1) was 3.5 per cent. This was the highest since the second quarter of 2017.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cGiven the serious impact of COVID-19 on most countries\u2019 economies, Malaysia\u2019s increase in unemployment is still under control, compared to 3.3 per cent in the previous quarter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In comparison, Tengku Zafrul said, the Q1 unemployment rate in the Philippines was 5.3 per cent (increasing from 4.5 per cent in the previous quarter), while Spain saw 14.41 per cent (up from 13.78 per cent in the previous quarter) and\u00a0New Zealand 4.2 per cent (rising from 4.0 per cent in the previous quarter).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cThis shows that COVID-19 affects jobs globally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Meanwhile, the finance minister said based on feedback, the government found that the situation faced by the public\u00a0and businesses was very challenging.<\/p>\n

He noted that four out of 10 Malaysian jobs were\u00a0related to the tourism industry,\u00a0which is among the sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He also said that the higher education industry, which is worth RM35 billion to the nation’s economy, would be facing major challenges in attracting international students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile\u00a067 per cent of workers have returned to work, there are about\u00a0five million workers in various sectors who have not started work. This is due to, among others, because, among others, these sectors being part of the list of industries prohibited under the strict Standard Operating Procedures for health and safety considerations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Citing a study by Ipsos,\u00a0Tengku Zafrul said it showed that 62 per cent of Malaysians were very concerned about the threat of COVID-19 to\u00a0themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe percentage is the highest among citizens of\u00a0countries surveyed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He stressed that the government was sensitive to the challenges faced by the workers and the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government does not take for granted the lives and livelihood of the people or the state of the economy,\u201d he said, adding that the PRIHATIN package was a manifestation\u00a0of the efforts taken by the government for the sake of the people and country.<\/p>\n

– BERNAMA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 – Some\u00a010.25 million people, or 67.2 per cent of the workforce,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7574,17],"tags":[7380],"class_list":["post-4045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid19","category-economy","tag-covid-19"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/zafrul-aziz.jpg",660,440,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/zafrul-aziz-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/zafrul-aziz-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/zafrul-aziz.jpg",640,427,false],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/zafrul-aziz.jpg",640,427,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/zafrul-aziz.jpg",660,440,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/zafrul-aziz.jpg",660,440,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/zafrul-aziz.jpg",660,440,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/zafrul-aziz.jpg",660,440,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/zafrul-aziz.jpg",660,440,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"COVID19<\/a> Economy<\/a>","tag_info":"Economy","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4045"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4047,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4045\/revisions\/4047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}