CYBERJAYA, Oct 19 — The negative perception of the country's current economic situation is not mirroring the real job market scenario.
Talent Corporation Malaysia Bhd (TalentCorp) Chief Executive Officer Johan Mahmood Merican said the country's economic fundamentals were still strong with gross domestic product of between 4.0 per cent and 5.0 per cent despite the negative notion.
He said although the unemployment rate increased slightly from 3.0 per cent to 3.2 per cent, it was still considered a full employment.
"Our current economic situation is still manageable and the government is monitoring the situation closely and has taken pre-emptive measures.
"These include enhancing graduate marketability by enlisting more graduates for the 1Malaysia Training Scheme and the Graduate Employability Management Scheme from more than 10,000 this year to 15,000 in 2016," he told Bernama recently.
Johan said although there was moderation in certain sectors, especially in the oil and gas industry, with the recruitment was badly affected due to weak commodity prices, the situation was compensated by growth in other sectors.
In addition, he said through its collaboration with JobStreet.com, TalentCorp was able to have a better insight into the job market as the online job board could keep track on the number of jobs created.
Meanwhile, JobStreet.com Country Manager Chook Yuh Yng said despite negative perception of the economy, the total number of jobs posted on its website was about the same as last year's.
"For the first nine months of this year, the number of jobs posted on JobStreet.com was 1.5 per cent higher than last year's. However, the figure contracted one per cent in the third quarter of this year compared with the corresponding quarter a year ago.
"Based on our job market outlook survey, for the past three quarters, we have seen the sentiment was quite negative in the sense that a lot of employers hired less job seekers while people were a bit more cautious.
"But the job market scenario has not really contracted and we are monitoring the situation closely," she added.
Yuh Yng said the salary range for fresh graduates was more or less equivalent to last year's at between RM2,100 and RM2,300 monthly.
JobStreet and TalentCorp recently forged a collaboration in developing industry-ready graduates on TalentCorp's Industry Engagement Zone (Ind-E-Zone) to enable them to be better prepared for the job search process.
Ind-E-Zone is a one stop career information centre which connects students to industry's relevant content and educates them on internship and career opportunities within Malaysia's key industries.
JobStreet is working together with TalentCorp to enhance Ind-E-Zone activities, including the student ambassador programme, internship market day and university career talk.
By end of this year, 11 Ind-E-Zones will be set up at public universities nationwide. — Bernama
