Less than 3,000 of 18,547 vacancies available in agriculture sector - Saravanan

He said from the statistics released by the Social Security Organisation Employment Insurance System (Socso-SIP) it shows that job seekers who are mostly school leavers and graduates are not keen in agricultural jobs.

"Perhaps it is time for the agricultural sector to be more creative and rebrand the business of farming to attract and recruit young people," he said in his speech at the virtual Agricommodity Career Carnival 2021 today.

Saravanan said the ministry is aware of the labour shortage problem faced by the agricommodity industry following the COVID-19 pandemic as the recruitment of foreign workers had been frozen in all sectors.

However he said, as a short-term solution, the government had given flexibility to affected employers, who could no longer afford to continue their business, to transfer all or part of their foreign workers to other companies through the Transfer of Employer programme.

KSM and the Home Ministry have also launched the Recalibration Plan for illegal immigrants from Nov 16, 2020 to June 30, 2021 which includes the Repatriation Recalibration and Labour Recalibration programmes.

In addition, the initiative under the PenjanaKerjaya programme namely 'Malaysianisation' was introduced and this involved the replacement of foreign workers to local workers whereby the incentive to employers covered 40 per cent of the monthly salary with a maximum value of RM4,000.

"As much as RM500 or 20 per cent of the monthly salary, or whichever is higher, will be paid directly to the employee. This incentive is eligible for a period of six months," he said.

Over 8,600 job vacancies are being offered by 26 employers at the two-day carnival and apart from virtual interview sessions, the programme includes a webinar session in career opportunities and a briefing on PenjanaKerjaya 2.0.

The carnival is organised by the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry in collaboration with KSM through Socso, and to participate, job seekers can register through the link https://careerfair.perkeso.gov.my.