He said this was based on the International Labour Organisation’s definition which states that any country recording unemployment of below 4.0% is a full employment nation.

“The unemployment rate in Malaysia is in the range of 3.3% to 3.4%, which is good and manageable,” he told reporters when met at the Perlis Secondary School Open Debate Competition and the launch of the Perlis Labour Department celebration at the Perlis Industrial Training Institute here yesterday.

Jeffrey said the current economic and political stability had contributed to the low unemployment rate in Malaysia.

Commenting on retrenchment exercises carried out by several companies in the country, he said this was due to the companies’ move to relocate their operations to other areas and was not caused by an economic slowdown.

“Such layoffs occurred in other countries too,” he said.