KUALA LUMPUR – The Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia (Samenta) has urged the government to convene a task force to address the severe disruption in the job market and plan for the future of work.
Its chairman Datuk William Ng said the job market was severely disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and new technologies.
He said while the country’s unemployment rate stands at 3.5%, it does not take underemployment or mismatch in qualifications and jobs into account.
“Employers, including small and medium enterprises (SME), are finding it difficult to hire qualified employees with the right skillsets, and have to settle for whatever is the next best. This severely impacts productivity growth and forces employers to retrain at considerable cost,” he said in a statement today.
He added an independent think tank Emir Research recently stated that underemployment is now “structural” and at the World Economic Forum, it was said that by 2025, more than half of all workers must be reskilled.
In this regard, he urged for the situation to be addressed urgently, not only to solve the job market disruption issue but to map out the availability of a trained workforce to support the growth of industries, provide meaningful high-value jobs and help businesses, especially SMEs, to upgrade the workforce and their digital capabilities.
At the same time, he said the current piecemeal and reactive approach is dangerous and regressive with the result of an increasing disconnect between policymakers and the industry in such areas as minimum wages, labour laws, social security coverage, employee benefits and more.
“A high-level, industry-led Future of Work task force is long overdue, and must include not only the relevant government agencies, but also the industry, including SMEs, so as to address this gap and prepare workers for a changed workplace,” he added. – Bernama, May 1, 2023
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