KUALA LUMPUR | There are some 290,898 active job seekers using the JobsMalaysia portal as of October this year, the Dewan Rakyat was told.
Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Mahfuz Omar (pic) said of the total, some 210,868 job seekers are university graduates.
He pointed out however that not all of the university graduates using the portal are unemployed.
These graduates included first-time active job seekers along with those who are already employed but looking for new jobs, he said in reply to Datuk Seri Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz (PH-Tanah Merah) during Question Time.
Ikmal had asked the ministry about the number of unemployed graduates for the past two years.
Mahfuz noted it was normal for students to take six months to find work after graduation and most will be able to find jobs during that period.
According to Mahfuz, between January to October this year, a total of 41,090 graduates managed to find jobs in various sectors via JobsMalaysia and programmes under the ministry.
He said there was no reason to be worried about such figures because the majority of them would eventually find a job.
“It is just normal transition for graduates where there is a specific time period that the group is seen as unemployed,” he said.
Asked if the government was prepared to work with government-linked companies to address this issue, Mahfuz said the ministry is working towards that.
This includes the setting up of the national-level Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Empowerment Committee, chaired by the Education Minister, involving nine core-related ministries.
This is to ensure courses by the higher learning institutions especially on TVET are in line with the requirements of employers, he said.
