Published on: Friday, July 07, 2006 |
Kota Kinabalu: The Federal Government wants to know exactly how many graduates are unemployed in the country and for this it must first streamline figures from three sources.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said there is need to acknowledge one set of statistics on the actual figure of jobless graduates to avoid confusion and different interpretations on the issue.
"There are three government sources that produce figures of unemployed graduates. One is from the Statistics Department releasing the Labour Force Survey that comes out once every three months," he said here Thursday.
"Secondly, the Human Resource Department also issues similar figures where the graduates would register on-line with the Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX) to apply for jobs while the last source would be from National Economic Action Council (MTEN) which I am also involved in," he said.
He was commenting on a recent report that some 70 per cent of graduates from public universities and institutes of higher learning in the country are unemployed.
Mustapa was speaking after launching a Student Services Centre (Anjung Siswa) at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) here. Also present were Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun, UMS Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Datuk Dr Mohd Noh Dalimin, Assistant Minister of Industrial Development, Hjh Jainab Ahmad and senior UMS officials.
According to Mustapa, the different sets of figures on unemployed graduates change from time to time and people tend to give different interpretations based on the numbers released from the different government sources.
"In fact, there are two categories of graduates applying for jobs - one group register as those who really have no jobs at all and the other group is those who are currently employed but register themselves as unemployed to look for better-paid jobs for career advancement.
"As a result, people give different views and presumptions based on these various figures from different sources. That is why the Government feels it is important to streamline the figures for better understanding of the real problem."
The argument that the private sector is not interested in employing local university graduates is not a direct cause for the unemployment situation as it also has to do with the economic situation and business opportunities, he said.
However, he admitted that the type of skills possessed by the graduates is also taken into account when it comes to employment. Another reason, he said, is due to the courses taken by the graduates in university.
But looking at the profiles of unemployed graduates, Mustapa said graduates holding degrees in every field like engineering, ICT, business, Islamic Studies, accounting and history, among others, are jobless.
Having said that, there can never be a perfect match between demand by industries and supply of graduates by the universities, he said.
Therefore, it is essential for the industry sector and higher learning institutions to consult each other so that they can see to the nation's workforce even better and the universities can introduce or upgrade courses.
Mustapa also stressed that the Federal Government has set up a committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak which demonstrates the seriousness of the government in tackling unemployment among graduates.
