162,180 vacancies yet to be filled

KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 (Bernama) -- Of 193,739 vacancies registered with the portal Jobs Malaysia, some 162,180 have yet to be filled as of last month, parliament was told Thursday.

Deputy Human Resources Minister Maznah Mazlan said of the total vacancies registered, only 31,559 job placements were made in the same period.

"Of the vacancies filled, 8,477 (26.9 percent) are management and
professional, 2,544 (8.1 percent) skilled, 16,168 (51.2 percent) semi-skilled and 4,360 (13.8 percent) basic worker," she said when replying to a question posed by a MP.

Maznah said that the high vacancy was due to the choosy attitude of non-graduates and graduates who were reluctant to work far from home.

"Jobs Malaysia offers more lower positions which graduates are encouraged to take up to gain experience needed for interviews."

Weak communication skills, written and spoken English and unaware of job opportunities contributed to graduates' failure to land jobs.

To overcome the proble, the government is implementing various measures to increase the number of jobs for graduates and the highly skilled.

Maznah said this is necessary as only 28 per cent of the workforce in Malaysia is highly skilled.

"By 2020, we expect to increase it to 40-50 percent as this will help the us achieve developed nation status with high income.

"Initiatives under the government's transformation plan will generate over
3.3mil jobs by 2020, including positions for graduates."

The deputy minister said the unemployment rate stood at 3.2 percent as of December last year, involving 391,200 of the 12,059,700 total workforce.

"An unemployment rate of below 4.0 percent is deemed as utilising the workforce," she added.