(Bloomberg) -- Malaysia’s jobless rate fell to 3.5% in February as growth in all sectors of the economy led to increased labor demand, according to the nation’s Department of Statistics.

Labor force participation in the Southeast Asian nation climbed to 69.9%, the highest in records going back to 2010, causing the overall jobless rate to drop to the lowest since February 2020, the data show.

The labor market’s recovery from the pandemic is expected to continue in line with the broad economy, which is forecast to grow between 4% to 5% in 2023. 

Malaysia is Asia’s leading provider of semiconductors to the US, and has seen a spurt in the export values of electrical and electronics products in recent months. Shipments of E&E products rose almost 12% to 44.3 billion ringgit ($10 billion) in February from a year earlier, the data show.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.