OVER 675,000 jobs were added between January and August this year in Malaysia though hiring remained slow, said Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran. A total of 50,326 jobs were created for graduates as of August 2019, while 624,979 vacancies were registered over the same period for the non-graduate category.

The Minister added that the big problem is that there are a lot of vacancies in the job market, but young people are not taking them up. He added that the jobs created this year were not only in the 3D (dirty, dangerous and difficult) category but also involved over 6,000 positions in management, 22,000 positions as technicians and associate professionals, and 150,000 positions in the green economy.

Meanwhile, when it came to retrenchment, 24,600 workers were laid off as of September 30, 2019. Out of the total, 21,625 or 87.9% involved regular lay-offs while 2,975 (12.1%) were done through the voluntary separation scheme (VSS).

Workers affected were mainly in the manufacturing sector, which recorded a total of 7,944 or 32.3% of total retrenchments. This was followed by the administrative and support services sector with 7,309 lay-offs or 29.7%, and trade, wholesale and retail sector with 2,123 or 8.63%.

The financial and insurance sector also recorded 1,748 retrenchments or 7.11%, while 1,049 and 679 people lost their jobs in the accommodation and food services sector and information and communications sector respectively.

The rise in vacancies is on account of the fact that graduates in Malaysia are too choosy in applying for jobs and that universities are failing to offer courses that are needed by the industry 4.0. In order to curb the vacancies, it thus becomes imperative for the government of Malaysia like its neighboring Singapore to increase its focus on skilling the workforce for the future jobs through more courses and initiatives that are aligned with the future of work. Creating more jobs and helping small businesses is also among the focus areas of Budget 2020.