- Malaysia’s unemployment rate slipped further in June as the number of unemployed and total labour force decreased during the month.

- The unemployment rate fell by 0.1ppt MoM to 2.8% in June. Note that the overall unemployment rate has been on a declining trend since January this year when it was recorded at 3.3%.

- The number of unemployed fell by 20,700 persons (or -5.1% MoM) to 385,800 persons. Total labour force slipped slightly by 0.3% MoM to 14,010 persons in June.

- As such, overall labour force participation rate was lower at 67.5% (or -0.4ppt MoM) during the month (May: 67.9%).

- Among the various sectors, we note an improvement in the workforce for the manufacturing segment in June.

- Based on a monthly survey of 138 industries, the number of employees in the manufacturing sector had increased by 2,954 persons (or +0.3% MoM) to 1,032,055 persons in June.

- Elsewhere, the Leading Index (LI) showed a decline in June. The LI indicated a decline in the economic performance by 0.4% MoM to 116.5 points during the month.

- Real Imports of Other Basic Precious & Other Non-ferrous Metal (-0.5% MoM) was among the components that significantly accounted to the decrease of the LI.

- Meanwhile, the Coincident Index (CI) reflected an improvement in current economic activities as the index advanced by 0.5% MoM during the month.

- The increase in the CI was driven by all components except Real Salaries and Wages in Manufacturing Sector and Industrial Production Index which were virtually unchanged in the reference month.

- The annual change of LI and CI showed an improvement in June 2014 as compared to the previous month.

- The annual change of LI rose slightly in the reference month to 0.8% vs. +0.6% YoY in May. On the other hand, the annual change of CI was 2.5% in June, compared to 1.7% in May.

- The Malaysian economy is likely to continue improving moderately in the coming months as the level of Diffusion Index for LI remained above 50.0% in June.

Source: AmeSecurities