PUTRAJAYA APRIL 9: Malaysia’s unemployment rate that rose from 3.3% in the pre-crisis to 4.5% during the COVID-19 crisis period has contributed to the increase in the natural and cyclical (involuntary) unemployment.
The Minister of Human Resources (MOHR), Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said, with the declining number of vacancies for graduate jobs in 2020 compared to 2019, many jobseekers are shifting towards non-graduate jobs that offer lower salaries rather than remain unemployed.
Saravanan said, the ministry is confident that the number of graduate jobs and wage rates will improve as the economy moves towards stabilisation.
The Minister added, MOHR sees the issue of new graduates receiving lower pay in 2020 than in 2019 with some getting lower than the minimum wage, as a temporary situation.
“The Government recovery and stimulus packages, coupled with the COVID-19 vaccination plan are expected to contribute to the revival of the economy, the business sector and the employment market.
“MOHR through its agencies such as SOCSO and Human Resources Development Fund is actively implementing government initiatives to stabilise the labour market and facilitate job seekers and the unemployed to obtain jobs. This includes the Hiring and Training Programmes under the PenjanaKerjaya as well as regular open interviews and PenjanaKerjaya career fairs.
“Social Security Organization (SOCSO) has been directed to analyse and publish insights of the actual 160,000 job placements implemented for job seekers throughout 2020, including the breakdown of placements for job seekers with tertiary education,” said Saravanan in a statement here today.
He added, wages offered by employers through the national employment portal MYFutureJobs in 2020 reveals that 67.3% of job vacancies is within the range of RM2, 000 – RM2, 499. Only 4,294 or 8.6% of total vacancies are offered with monthly wages of below RM1, 500.
However Saravanan said, these vacancies are related to pre-career positions that include interns and apprentices.
“Despite being the most affected category, job placement for graduates is reported to be the highest. The share of job placement for graduate equivalent occupations, namely the professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMET) improves from 38.0% in the third quarter to 50.2% in fourth quarter of 2020,” he added in the statement.
The increase in the graduate equivalent occupations in the services and manufacturing sectors, said Saravanan provides a good sign of the labour market improvement because these two sectors are the main sources of employment for graduates during the pre-crisis period (2019).
In another development, the EIS statistics show that majority of workers (62.5%) including graduates hired in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 received basic wages ranging from RM1, 200 to RM1, 499 a month. Only 8.8% of workers are paid with basic wages below the minimum wage of RM1, 200.
The concentration of wages at the RM1, 200 – RM1, 499 range can be attributed to three factors, namely stronger demand for non-graduate jobs, location and cyclical unemployment due COVID-19 pandemic.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, the labour supply was dominated by the job seekers with tertiary education, representing 45.5% of total job seekers. However, majority or 70% of vacancies offered by employers are for non-graduate jobs.
“With a shortage of vacancies for graduate occupations, the job seekers with tertiary education are most likely to opt for the non-graduate jobs such as clerks, sales assistant, admin assistant, customer service and the like as a temporary measure until the economy fully recovers with more job opportunities for PMET category,” said Saravanan. – Malaysia World News
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