Kuala Lumpur, Oct 11 (IANS): Malaysia's unemployment rate in August remained unchanged at 3.7 per cent as compared to July, official data revealed on Tuesday.

The number of unemployed persons sustained its downward trend, falling 1.4 per cent to 612,000 persons from 620,700 in July, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the employed persons remained stable, rising 0.2 per cent to 16.02 million persons from 15.98 million persons in July, Xinhua news agency reported citing the statement as saying.

The employment-to-population ratio, which indicates the ability of an economy to create employment, went up by 0.1 percentage points to 67.1 per cent in August.

By economic sector, the number of employed persons in the service sector remained on an increasing trend, particularly in food and beverages service, wholesale and retail trade, administrative and support service activities.

A similar trend was observed in the manufacturing and construction sectors, while the number of employed persons in the agriculture and mining and quarrying sectors continued to decrease.

During the month, the number of the labour force strengthened further with an increase of 0.2 per cent to 16.63 million persons.

Consequently, the labour force participation rate continued to increase by 0.1 percentage points to 69.7 per cent.

"In line with the improving economic condition, the labour market is expected to continue to flourish in the upcoming months, coupled with new entrants into the labour market as well as the entry of foreign labour into the country in the near future, which is expected to meet the increasing needs of the labour force in the market," said the DOSM.