Kota Kinabalu: Corporate entities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should collaborate to assist the Government in creating more job opportunities, especially for the youths, to reduce the unemployment rate in Sabah.
Sabah Youth Council (MBS) Permanent Chairman Mazlan Manan said potential cooperations involve organising additional guidance programmes to boost the skills of young individuals and offering entrepreneurial courses according to market needs.
“Sabah has many raw material sources along with untapped natural resources. This creates the potential to generate additional job opportunities in addressing unemployment issue,” he said.
He was commenting on a statement by Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar, who was reported to have said on Monday (Aug 21) that Sabah had the highest unemployment rate, with a total of 169,800 people or 29 per cent out of the 588,700 unemployed persons nationwide.
Mazlan added that unemployment is a persistent issue in Sabah, particularly among the youths and that this resulted in them relocating to the peninsula to find work due to the limited job opportunities in the State.
One of the factors contributing to this scenario is the disparity in development rates between Sabah and other states. This has resulted in greater employment opportunities available in other states, particularly in the peninsula.
“The implementation of previous Federal Government’s infrastructure and economic development efforts has also been concentrated in the peninsula, resulting in a more open economic environment and job opportunities there,” he said, adding the State Government is working on attracting foreign investors to invest in Sabah.
However, he noted that there are difficulties in attracting foreign investors to Sabah, primarily due to inadequate infrastructure like roads, water and electricity.
As such, he hoped the Federal and State governments will focus more on infrastructure development and assist in attracting investors to create job and business opportunities in Sabah.
Meanwhile, Loqman Said, a 27-year-old private employee, shared his experience of being unemployed for several years after graduating, saying he tried in vain to apply for jobs in local companies until he eventually received a job offer in the peninsula.
He added that there were also fewer local companies in Sabah offering jobs compared to companies in the peninsula on job websites like JobStreet.
“The problem is that not everyone wants to work outside Sabah like, for example, migrating to the peninsula because it’s far from their families and the cost of living is high. So, that might be one reason for the high unemployment rate in Sabah,” he said.
Food delivery rider Mohd Imaduddin Mohd Zaman, 24, is of the view that the main issue behind Sabah’s high unemployment rate is the limited job opportunities rather than the youths being choosy.
“Coming from an underprivileged family, I have no problem doing laborious work, but the jobs aren’t available here. There are jobs in the peninsula, but it’s difficult to go there since I need to take care of my elderly parents. This is an ongoing dilemma faced by the youth of Sabah - educated but the opportunities are limited,” he said.
Depending on cheap foreign labour, instead of utilising skilled and higher educated local workers, could affect the Government’s efforts to improve the standard of living of Sabah folks, especially those living in poverty, he added.
Sofea Ami, 29, who runs her own online business, believes that many companies heavily depend on foreign labour to reduce costs, resulting in limited opportunities for local youths.
Sofia, who was also among those who struggled to find employment before eventually venturing into online business to earn an income, hopes for collaborative efforts from all parties to address this issue.
