MOHR: It’s the wage, not unemployment, which is the issue

It’s the increase of wage, not the unemployment which is the issue that we should be concerned about, says Minister of Human Resources Malaysia, Datuk. Dr. S. Subramaniam.

According to him, the unemployment rate in Malaysia is at 3.1%, which is as good as 100% employment, so the focus now is on the increase of wages.

“There are around 150,000 Malaysians who commute daily to Singapore to work there,” he said, adding that including those who live in Singapore, there could be around 200,000 Malaysians working in Singapore,” he said.

He noted that employment in Malaysia is good enough, and even quipped that there are enough opportunities for even foreigners.

Earlier in his speech, Dr. S. Subramaniam added that the current Economic Transformation Program embarked by the government is focussed on transforming Malaysia into a high income nation by 2020, whereby the country’s gross national income per capita will increase from RM23,700 in 2009 to more than RM48,000.

He was speaking to reporters after the launch of The People’s Edge Magazine.

Meanwhile, the minister lauded the magazine, published by Job Hunt Group, as it was devoted to the development of the nation’s human capital management. “I have had a quick look at the magazine and I can see that it is full of interesting information on the field of HR and human capital development where the latest trends, information, views and efforts in these fields taken by the government and its agencies and the private sector are showcased, discussed and analysed,” he said during the speech.

Job Hung’s Group Executive Director, Dato’ (Dr) Michael C.H. Wong, in his speech, noted that as a specialist in human capital solutions, the publisher saw a gap for a publication that addresses Human Capital management from a wholly Malaysian perspective.

“So, we took a proactive approach and invested in this direction to broaden our commitment, in ‘Developing Malaysia’s Human Capital’, which is our tagline for our Human Capital magazine, People’s Edge,” he said.

Unemployment Rate Rose In June 2011

Yikes, the month June passed by and not many realised that the unemployment rate for that month actually rose.

This was after remaining steady in the previous month, data released by the Department of Statistics showed recently.

A report from a global financial news-wire, quoted the statistics, saying that the unemployment rate increased to 3.2 percent in June from 3 percent in May, which was unchanged from the figure for April. In June 2010, the jobless rate was 3.6 percent.

The number of unemployed persons in the country advanced to 400,100 in June from 380,300 in the previous month. Year-on-year, the number of unemployed dropped 8.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of employed persons remained unchanged at 12.11 million during the month. Compared to last year, employment was up by 2.9 percent.

The number of labor force edged up to 12.51 million in June from 12.49 million in the previous month. The labor force participation rate for the month was steady at 63.9 percent.

Oh boys, where art thou?

Looks like we are going to, or already are, get(ting) more females in the workforce if we were to judge from the entries in our universities.

The Star newspaper reported that more girls are getting places in universities than boys and this is worrying the Higher Education Ministry.

“It is not that the ministry is against female dominance at the local universities. But it is important to ensure a balanced growth for both genders,” the report quoted the minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin as saying.

He said male students made up just 35% of the overall intake at the local universities this year.

“This problem needs to be immediately addressed,” he said adding that however, there was a “healthy balance” of male and female students for technical-based courses.

“But we need to work on encouraging male students to enroll for other courses, too,” he said.

“Other than that, we have a shortage of students enrolling for science and technological based courses this year,” Mohamed Khaled said, adding that 5% of available seats for such courses were not taken.

“We will try and fix these problems at the secondary school level and hopefully, we will be able to achieve our target in future,” he said.