Malaysia's unemployment rate fell to 3.3 percent in February 2018, down 0.1 percent from the previous month, said the Statistics Department.

On year-on-year (y-o-y) comparison, the unemployment rate in February 2018 was also 0.2 per cent lower than a year ago, according to the February 2018 Labour Force Statistics report released today.

The department said the labour force grew by 0.3 percent in February 2018 to 15.23 million, from 15.19 million a month earlier.

On the labour force participation rate in February 2018, the department said it remained unchanged at 68.2 percent compared with that of the previous month.

"On y-o-y comparison, the labour force participation rate in February 2018 increased 0.4 percent from the same month a year ago," it said.

It added that 31.8 percent, or 7.11 million of the working age population (15-64 years), were outside the labour force in February 2018, up from 7.07 million in the previous month.

"The group comprised housewives, students, retirees and those who are not interested to work," it said.

- Bernama