TAPAH, July 25 — A total of 64,495 workers from various sectors nationwide have lost their jobs since early this year, said Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan.

He said the statistics released by the office of the Employment Insurance System (SIP) of the Social Security Organisation (Socso) were higher than the number given by various employment agencies namely 55,000 workers.

Therefore, Saravanan said the government had taken several steps, including introducing the hiring incentive and training assistance programme or PenjanaKerjaya starting June 15 to help retrenched workers.

"As of July 23, a total of 16,198 employers have registered under this incentive and out of that number, 2,240 employers have employed 6,928 employees.

"We also announced that there will be no new intake of foreign workers in all sectors until the year-end as locals will be given priority to fill up vacancies,” he told a press conference after launching the PenjanaKerjana Carnival at Dewan Merdeka here today. — Bernama