KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — Some 72,000 Malaysians were retrenched since the government imposed the movement control order (MCO) from March to date, Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan told Mingguan Malaysia.

Citing the latest figures from the Social Security Organisation (Socso), Saravanan said the figure excludes those who work in informal businesses since they are not registered with it.

“At the moment those who have registered with Socso are among those who have been let go and searching for jobs is about 72,000 people. This is the figure as of early September, taken from early March 2020.

“Informal sectors… we do not have the data, for example, unregistered eateries that did not register with Socso,” he told the Malay paper, the weekend edition of Utusan Malaysia, in an interview published today.

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Saravanan added that his ministry also does not have the exact data on the number of food and beverage outlets that have since closed down.

In the interview, the minister also said some 500,000 youths are currently jobless, based on the government’s data in May that put the total unemployment rate at that point at 5.3 per cent, or 826,100 people.

Sarawanan said he believes the gig economy could help jobless youths generate income while searching for other employment opportunities.

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He said that as of September, the number of job seekers in the country could rise to one million, attributing the increase to an additional 350,000 fresh graduates and 200,000 Malaysians returning from abroad.

Saravanan said one potential sector for growth that could offer employment would be in services. 

He said the service sector needs more labour now since the government has been forced to limit its intake of foreign workers.e

“The government does not allow foreign workers at the moment to give more opportunities to local employees.

“Therefore I have asked all industry players, especially in the service sector, frontlines such as cashiers, among others to utilise local workers,” he was quoted saying.