Unemployment status

The Inter-censual Survey in 2019 (Department of Population, 2020), reported that among the working-age group (above 15), 38.5% were either unemployed or were out of the labour force. The unemployment rate among persons aged 15 years and over was 2.7% at the national level, the unemployment rates between urban and rural areas was minimal, 2.6% vs 2.7%.

Likewise, International Labour Organisation (ILO) (2022) reports that Myanmar is hard hit by rising loss of labour force in the first six months of 2022. Compared to 2020, it loses about 1.6 million jobs for men and women. The unemployment rate is much lower than 2020 and the more women (2.5%) (Figure 2) suffered the loss of jobs compared to men (2%) (Figure 3).