Impact Of COVID-19 On Malaysia's Employment Market

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis that broke out in 2019 posed a threat to the life safety of the global population due to its extremely strong infectivity. It also had a profound impact on the global labor market. This paper explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the employment market of Malaysia and Malaysia's response measures by combining the Malaysia government’s data on employment from 2020 to 2021 and some related studies on the employment impact in certain areas of Malaysia. The study found that the COVID-19 epidemic had led to an increase of 1.1% in the unemployment rate of the Malaysian labor market, reaching 4.5%, the highest since the 21st century; The main reasons for unemployment are lockdown policies, reduced consumer consumption, and trade obstacles; The service industry, manufacturing industry, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been most affected; The Malaysian government aims to alleviate unemployment by stimulating the economy, online working, and distributing vaccines through the National COVID-19 Immunization Programme.