Kuala Lumpur | The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a slowdown in the economy, leading to high unemployment with more than 2 million people expected to lose their jobs, according to the Malaysian Employers Federation in April.
In a survey conducted by JobStreet in May among 5,000 members of the workforce in Malaysia, we found that one in five of those who were working prior to the Movement Control Order (MCO) have been retrenched. Most of the retrenched employees are less tenured, from the low-income segment, and from the part-time workforce in small organizations. These workers are also largely from the tourism/travel, hospitality/catering, mass transportation, education and retail industries. The pandemic has greatly impacted the livelihood of Malaysians, both employers and jobseekers. “Now, more than ever, JobStreet is committed to its purpose of improving lives through better careers. Through the #TogetherAhead initiative, our goal is to help rebuild businesses, careers and people’s lives”, says Gan Bock Herm, Country Manager of JobStreet.
#TogetherAhead is a unique JobStreet initiative that began in the early days of the pandemic. It includes a COVID-19 Jobs and Resources Hub which connects employers and jobseekers with useful information and insights to fulfill their employment needs. Jobseekers can find in-demand jobs by industry, companies that continue to hire, and career advice to assist them in finding their next job opportunity.
Today, we are introducing #WorkNow which helps jobseekers stand out and connect with potential employers. It helps displaced jobseekers inform potential employers that they are ready to work immediately. Likewise, this allows companies to identify and access jobseekers that are available for urgent hiring.
To use this function, jobseekers simply need to log in to their JobStreet profile and add #WorkNow to make their profiles stand out to employers.
“#WorkNow is part of JobStreet’s continuous initiative to help unemployed Malaysians get back to work faster during this unprecedented time, while enabling businesses through the right talent fit. JobStreet has a critical role during this time to help Malaysians secure available jobs in the shortest time possible, and to support them through this COVID-19 crisis,” said Ramesh Rajandran, Chief Marketing Officer, SEEK Asia, JobStreet’s parent company.
To learn more about #TogetherAhead and other JobStreet initiatives, visit https://bit.ly/JobStreetTogetherAhead.
