SABAHANS, especially youths and job seekers, are advised to take full advantage of the job portals set up by government departments and agencies to hunt for jobs suitable to their qualifications.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said the Government has launched portals such as the Sabah Jobs Portal (SJP) and MYFutureJobs, which are platforms to search for jobs locally, as well as a free avenue for employers in the private sector to advertise job vacancies.
He said as of Sept 27, a total of 5,491 job seekers and 233 employers who were looking to fill in 365 vacant positions had registered with the Sabah Jobs Portal.
“The creation of the national jobs portal MYFutureJobs and the Sabah Jobs Portal will enable efforts on job matching and other career services as well as to offer government initiatives.
“Based on the data by the Social Security Organisation (Socso), a total of 1,013 people lost their jobs between January and Sept 16 this year while at the same time, 10,971 people have received job placements.
“Hence, the youths and other job seekers are urged to register themselves with the Sabah Jobs Portal. I want to see more from the younger generation or school leavers utilise this portal,” he said when launching the Sabah Maju Jaya Premier Career Carnival 2022 at the Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) in Kota Kinabalu on Oct 8.
The carnival was organised by the State Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry together with its agency, the Sabah Human Resource Development Department (JPSM), as well as Socso.
More than 1,500 job opportunities were being offered by 20 employers from various sectors.
Hajiji said the country’s economy has gradually improved since the nation entered the transition into the endemic phase of Covid-19, with the unemployment rate decreasing to 3.9 per cent as of April this year.
He added that 15.85 million people have been recorded to have jobs nationwide up to July this year.
According to him, statistics from the Labour Force Survey showed the unemployment rate in Sabah until May this year stood at 9.1pc.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic had severely affected the working sector whereby many industries were forced to fold, causing the unemployment rate to rise.
Hence, Hajiji said to remedy the situation, the Government has taken various steps, including holding career carnivals as a medium to connect job hunters and employers.
He said the Sabah Human Resource Development Department has held six such carnivals so far this year, with 1,282 out of 3,109 applicants getting job placements. 14,654 job vacancies were being offered.
Hajiji said the initiative taken by Socso through its Jaminan Kerja-Insentif Penggajian (JKIP) programme has also helped people to attain jobs this year.
Up to July 18, he said the JKIP programme and the MYFutureJobs portal have helped secure jobs for 113,672 Malaysians.
At the same time, the Chief Minister also urged employers to provide the best incentives to job seekers.
Meanwhile, Hajiji said the Sabah Government has introduced a new initiative known as the Young Entrepreneur Successful Scheme (Syabas) to help the youth in Sabah to expand their existing businesses or start a new one following the effects of Covid-19.
“The State Government has allocated RM10 million for the Syabas programme to provide financial aid to young entrepreneurs in Sabah,” he said.
Also present were Deputy Chief Minister cum Industrial Development Minister Datuk Seri Dr Joachim Gunsalam, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Yakub Khan, State Secretary Datuk Seri Sr Safar Untong and Industrial Development Ministry Permanent Secretary Datuk Thomas Logijin.
