SARAWAK’S labour market continues to improve in 2022 with its labour participation rate increasing to 70.8 per cent.
Minister for Finance and New Economy, Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said this was all due to the employment increase in the second quarter of 2022 alongside a significant increase in the labour force.
As such, the unemployment rate stabilised around 3.3 per cent in the second quarter of this year.
“Following the positive outlook across the various economic sectors, the overall labour market in Sarawak for 2022 is expected to be resilient.
“Unemployment rate is projected to remain around 3.0 per cent to 3.5 per cent in 2022,” he said when tabling the Supply (2023) Bill, 2022 at the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting on Today (Nov 21).
Touching on inflation, he said the disruption in the global supply chain and rise in commodity and food prices had caused a higher cost of production across industries.
“In Sarawak, inflation went up from 1.9 per cent for the period of January to August 2021 to 2.6 per cent for the corresponding period in 2022.
“This is largely due to higher inflation from the food and non-alcoholic beverages segment, contributing 1.4 percentage-point of the overall inflation in Sarawak.
“As a whole, inflation in Sarawak is expected at 2.5 per cent to 3.0 per cent in 2022.”
Having said that, Abang Johari reiterated that in 2022, Sarawak economy was expected to grow between 5.5 per cent and 6.5 per cent.
“This growth will be supported by strong external demand and improvement in domestic economic activities, reflecting normalising economic activity as the state moves towards endemicity and reopening of international borders.”
