Stagnant pay, skills and jobs mismatch: How can Malaysia tackle these 3 'paradoxes'?
KUALA LUMPUR: A tight labour market but with stagnant wages. A lack of skilled talent in critical sectors even though such workers do exist. Only enough jobs for one-sixth of Malaysia's 300,000 university graduates yearly.
These are Malaysia’s employment “paradoxes”, identified by its Human Resources Minister Steven Sim.
The three paradoxes mean the country needs to utilise its skilled professionals more effectively through better coordination between policymakers, employers and educators, observers told CNA.
The minister shared his views at a lively panel discussion on operationalising Malaysia’s education and training agenda held at Sunway University on Monday (Jan 13).
He noted that the paradoxes centre around how Malaysia shows “positive” statistics in unemployment and the number of graduates produced, but struggles when it comes to wages, underemployment and the availability of high-paying jobs.
To address these paradoxes, Sim stressed the importance of upskilling workers through programmes such as TVET (technical and vocational education and training) courses and government initiatives to boost wages and jobs.
Sim also spoke about plans to make the country’s TVET programme more attractive and accessible, and revealed that he himself had enrolled in a TVET course in corporate leadership.
Sunway University economics professor Yeah Kim Leng told CNA that the three paradoxes are “symptomatic” of how the Malaysian economy is underperforming and registering below its growth potential.
“A more responsive national education policy and labour market policy are needed to coordinate the nation’s human resource planning and development. It is a call to action for policymakers, employers and educators to develop and harness the