Work & life
16.85m
people employed
The people keeping Malaysia moving.
A count of people in employment. From offices and workshops to family businesses.
Jul 2026 · DOSM↗
Work & life · 2 min read
Is everyone without a job counted as unemployed?
A statistics trick question: there is a third group hiding in plain sight.
Data-Lah · Source data checked: 28 Sep 2026
7.11mpeople outside the labour force
Jul 2026 · DOSM
The short answer
The July 2026 estimate includes 7,110,500 people outside the labour force. They are classified separately from employed and unemployed people.
What it means
Some people are studying, caring for family or retired early. Their classification depends on the survey’s definitions; having no paid job alone is not enough to label everyone unemployed.
How the number is read
Published lf_outside, in thousands, × 1,000 = people.