[Malaysia Daily] Nearly 60,000 jobless graduates in Malaysia: report

[Muhammad]

KUALA LUMPUR: Nearly 60,000 Malaysian graduates, majority of them women, are unemployed because of poor command over English language and lack of good communication skills, a media report on Thursday said.

A census drive conducted by country's economic planning unit saw 59,250 'unemployed youths' signing up for jobs, majority of them having done either business or IT courses, the 'New Straits Times' report said.

Majority of them are ethnic Malay and educated with a loan provided by national higher education fund (80 per cent), the survey said.

Seventy one per cent of the unemployed graduates are women, 61 per cent are from poor families with household incomes under RM 1,000 ($265), while 81 per cent had attended public universities, where the medium of instruction in many courses is in Malay.

"59,250 youth have signed up during this census drive. It is believed there could be many more degree-holders who are jobless but had not signed up during this period," the newspaper quoted Human Resources Minister, Mr Fong Chan Onn, as saying.

Of the 59,250, he said, 87.6 per cent applied for jobs in the public sector and 85 per cent to the private sector.

However, 19,761 had said they had not been called for an interview by the public sector, and 8,285 stated that they were never called for an interview by the private sector.

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Posted by Muhammad to Malaysia Daily at 11/04/2005 01:27:00 AM