KUALA LUMPUR – Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal has called for intensified focus on churning out more jobs and career opportunities for graduates to end the growing problem of job mismatches in the country.
Based on data released by the Statistics Department, some 1.89 million graduates were working in the semi-skilled and non-skilled sectors last year, he said.
The former Sabah chief minister, who has in the past also served in the federal cabinet, said this shows that 1.89 million jobs supposed to be filled by individuals with at least SPM and diploma qualifications have been filled by overqualified or underemployed persons.
“Studies show that the ‘underemployment’ trend can cause the expansion of the low-income group, or the B40s.
“Many lost their jobs because graduates are being hired to fill vacancies meant for them, and they could fall into the urban poor group,” he said in a statement today.
He said the government must intensify and prioritise the gig economy and entrepreneurship to create jobs for the graduates. Contractual jobs should also be offered to those in the public sector and government-linked companies, he added.
Shafie said he believes many graduates scrambling to be hired are willing to be underemployed.
He pointed to statistics showing that there were only 73,000 jobs created for 260,701 graduates last year.
He stressed that the joblessness trend will implicate the M40 group, adding that those aged between 45 and 60 risk falling into the B40 income bracket if the situation is not addressed.
To this end, he said the job mismatch in the market needs to be overcome immediately as part of the effort towards economic recovery. – The Vibes, September 17, 2021
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