In a note today, Kenanga said that as of May 19, 2023, vacancies in MyFutureJobs stood at 113,120 compared to April’s 20,853.

“We believe the resilient domestic demand would partially mitigate the weakness in the external sector amid the impact of the global growth slowdown.

“We believe a continued recovery in the services sector amid a gradual rise in tourism activity would support its growth outlook,” it said.

Kenanga said that the number of unemployed persons in April decreased by 0.3% to 586,900 persons compared to 588,700 last month, with the unemployment rate standing at 3.5%, unchanged from March.

“The number of the labour force recorded an addition of 0.2% to register 16.84 million persons compared to 16.81 million in March,” it said.

Meanwhile, Kenanga said the labour force participation rate edged up 0.1 of-a-percentage point to 70% (March: 69.9%), indicating higher labour participation in the market.

It said that on a month-on-month comparison, the number of employed persons in April inched up 0.2% to record 16.25 million persons, a record high.

“With that said, we maintain the 2023 gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast at 4.7%, given the steady labour market conditions that will continue to support growth in domestic demand,” said Kenanga IB.