MoHR committed to strengthening labour market through wage subsidies, training and incentives

Its Minister, Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said RM1.5 billion from the allocation would be given to the Social Security Organisation (SOCSO) for the implementation of the Wage Subsidy Programme (WSP) 2.0.

"This incentive encourages companies to hire local workers. The 200-employee limit has been increased to 500 for larger companies under the tourism and retail sectors.

"The government has managed to reduce the unemployment rate through the wage subsidy, whereby SOCSO has helped almost 2.7 million workers from losing their jobs and saved 300,000 companies from bankruptcy," he said during a special press conference with regard to Budget 2021 here today.

Saravanan said the funds allocated would be used to address unemployment, create more jobs, add enhancing the workforce through upskilling, reskilling, and cross skilling.

He said that the country's unemployment rate stood at 5.3 per cent May, however, it dropped to 4.6 per cent by September following the implementation of initiatives such as the WSP and Penjana Kerjaya, another hiring incentive programme.

Meanwhile, Saravanan said RM2 billion would be allocated for the implementation of the second series of Penjana Kerjaya, following the success of the first one.

"Incentives for employees earning RM1,500 and above will be increased from a flat rate of RM800 per month, to 40 per cent of their monthly salary.

"For recruitment of persons with disabilities, the long-term unemployed, single mothers and retrenched workers, employers will be given an additional incentive of 20 per cent of the employee's monthly salary," he explained.

Apart from that, he said an additional incentive of 20 per cent of the monthly salary would be offered for hiring local workers in place of foreigners, and the maximum rate for undergoing high skills programmes or professional certificates has been increased from RM4,000 to RM7,000.

He said the ministry also received an allocation of RM1.288 billion for the ministry's annual expenditure.