MOHR: It’s the wage, not unemployment, which is the issue

It’s the increase of wage, not the unemployment which is the issue that we should be concerned about, says Minister of Human Resources Malaysia, Datuk. Dr. S. Subramaniam.

According to him, the unemployment rate in Malaysia is at 3.1%, which is as good as 100% employment, so the focus now is on the increase of wages.

“There are around 150,000 Malaysians who commute daily to Singapore to work there,” he said, adding that including those who live in Singapore, there could be around 200,000 Malaysians working in Singapore,” he said.

He noted that employment in Malaysia is good enough, and even quipped that there are enough opportunities for even foreigners.

Earlier in his speech, Dr. S. Subramaniam added that the current Economic Transformation Program embarked by the government is focussed on transforming Malaysia into a high income nation by 2020, whereby the country’s gross national income per capita will increase from RM23,700 in 2009 to more than RM48,000.

He was speaking to reporters after the launch of The People’s Edge Magazine.

Meanwhile, the minister lauded the magazine, published by Job Hunt Group, as it was devoted to the development of the nation’s human capital management. “I have had a quick look at the magazine and I can see that it is full of interesting information on the field of HR and human capital development where the latest trends, information, views and efforts in these fields taken by the government and its agencies and the private sector are showcased, discussed and analysed,” he said during the speech.

Job Hung’s Group Executive Director, Dato’ (Dr) Michael C.H. Wong, in his speech, noted that as a specialist in human capital solutions, the publisher saw a gap for a publication that addresses Human Capital management from a wholly Malaysian perspective.

“So, we took a proactive approach and invested in this direction to broaden our commitment, in ‘Developing Malaysia’s Human Capital’, which is our tagline for our Human Capital magazine, People’s Edge,” he said.

Unemployment Rate Rose In June 2011

Yikes, the month June passed by and not many realised that the unemployment rate for that month actually rose.

This was after remaining steady in the previous month, data released by the Department of Statistics showed recently.

A report from a global financial news-wire, quoted the statistics, saying that the unemployment rate increased to 3.2 percent in June from 3 percent in May, which was unchanged from the figure for April. In June 2010, the jobless rate was 3.6 percent.

The number of unemployed persons in the country advanced to 400,100 in June from 380,300 in the previous month. Year-on-year, the number of unemployed dropped 8.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of employed persons remained unchanged at 12.11 million during the month. Compared to last year, employment was up by 2.9 percent.

The number of labor force edged up to 12.51 million in June from 12.49 million in the previous month. The labor force participation rate for the month was steady at 63.9 percent.

KPI for marketability of students

Is your university capable enough to enable you to get a job once you graduate? Well, there will be a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to figure that out.

In fact, graduate employability has been included as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for all vice-chancellors of public universities.

The Star newspaper quoted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as saying that the move was part of the long-term goal to raise the quality and marketability of local graduates.

“Others include introducing entrepreneurship curriculum, implementing soft skills programmes and student internship programmes in public and private corporations before the students graduate.

“Continuous dialogue between the universities and industry is being held to raise the quality of the graduates, an approach which is expected to reduce the mismatch between supply and demand for skilled manpower,” he said when launching the 1Malaysia Training Scheme (SL1M).

Najib said the Government was also implementing special programmes as a short-term measure to raise graduate employability and that included the training programmes carried out by the Higher Education Ministry, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Khazanah and the Skills Development Fund Corporation involving 12,000 graduates.

He said this meant that out of the 20,000 unemployed graduates, 8,000 did not have the opportunity to undergo additional training to improve their marketability.

“Some of them come from the rural and interior areas as well as from low-income families.

“This background influences their character and self-confidence and affects their ability to secure employment

“Thus, by carrying out a last mile intervention in the form of finishing schools, I believe they will become more confident, and they are the target group of the SL1M,” he said, adding that the initiative was also for those who failed to be employed six months after graduating.