KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- The number of graduates in Malaysia rose by 5.1 percent year on year to 5.92 million in 2022, with the graduate's unemployment rate eased to 3.7 percent, official data showed Monday.
The graduates in Malaysia comprise 23.1 percent of the population in the working age of 15 years and above, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement.
Degree graduates comprised a share of 53.9 percent, or equivalent to 3.19 million people, while diploma graduates made up 46.1 percent, or 2.73 million people.
Out of the total graduates during the year, 5.06 million were in the labor force, resulting in the graduates' labor force participation rate of 85.4 percent.
For year-on-year comparison, the number of degree graduates in the labor force rose by 5.6 percent while diploma graduates increased by 5.5 percent, which was attributed to the increase of employed graduates and the decline in the number of unemployed graduates.
According to the DOSM, the number of employed graduates went up by 6 percent to 4.87 million people.
Around two-thirds were employed in the skilled occupations category, accounting for 3.19 million people.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate of graduates eased 0.4 percentage points to 3.7 percent in 2022.
The number of unemployed graduates decreased by 5.5 percent in 2022 to 187,800 people.
Higher salaries and wages were also recorded for graduates in 2022 as compared to the preceding year, whereby the median monthly salaries and wages in their full-time equivalent principal occupations grew 5.5 percent to 4,128 ringgit (about 884 U.S. dollars). ■
