Unemployment - Myth or truth?

I read the below from Bernama:

36,000 Malaysians Unemployed As At Dec 2009, Says Maznah

ROMPIN, Feb 28 (Bernama) -- Some 36,000 Malaysians were unemployed between October 2008 and December last year or 3.6 per cent of the total population, Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Maznah Mazlan said.

Ok, let's do some maths.

36,000 = 3.6% of population, means the Malaysia population is:

36,000/3.6%*100 = 10,000,000 (10 million)

Is it true that our population as of Dec 2009 is 10 million?

Is it mistake from the Deputy Minister, or is it Bernama?

Let's see if she actually means working population instead. If she refers to working population, then let's see figures from the Statistics department below:

Employment (Updated:31/12/2009)

Employment 2008 Annual 2009 1st Qtr 2009 2nd Qtr 2009 3rd Qtr Total Labour Force ('000) 11,028.1 11,208.5 11,450.0 11,442.5 Employed ('000) 10,659.6 10,757.8 11,034.4 11,032.8 Unemployed ('000) 368.5 450.7 415.7 409.7 Unemployment Rate (% of Labour Force) 3.3 4.0 3.6 3.6 Labour Force Participation Rate (%) (% of working age population 15-64 years) 62.6 62.6 63.4 63.2 Source: Labour Force Survey, Department of Statistics, Malaysia It says 3Q2009 unemployment is 409,000, or 3.6% of Labour force. Now, compare the 2 sets of figures: Deputy Minister said a total of 36,000 unemployed in 4Q2009, when compare with 3Q2009 from the Statistics department of 409,000 unemployed, Main Stream Media should highlight that the unemployment dropped sharply, 343,000 found jobs in 4Q2009. What an achievement!! Who lied?